The COVID-19 pandemic's impact on all-cause mortality disparities in Medicare: By race, income, chronic health, mental/behavioral health, disability.

Background: The Medicare-enrolled population is heterogeneous across race, ethnicity, age, dual eligibility, and a breadth of chronic health, mental and behavioral health, and disability-related conditions, which may be differentially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective: To quantify changes in all-cause mortality prior-to and in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic across Medicare's different sociodemographic and health-condition subpopulations.

Methods: This observational, population-based study used stratified bivariate regression to investigate Medicare fee-for-service subpopulation differences in pre-pandemic (i.

Red Blood Cell Product Transfusion Thresholds and Clinical Outcomes.

Objective: To determine whether patients transfused red blood cell (RBC) products according to guideline-specified pretransfusion hemoglobin (Hb) concentrations or for other reasons were more likely to survive their intensive care unit (ICU) stay.

Design: An observational study of 375 478 episodes of ICU care, over 5 years, was performed with ICU survival as the primary outcome. Outcomes were analyzed as a function of pretransfusion Hb concentration for groups with distinct transfusion indications while adjusting for potential confounders.