Background: Healthcare coverage has been shown to have implications in the prevalence of coronary artery disease. We explore the impact of lack of healthcare coverage on ischemic heart disease (IHD) mortality in the US.
Methods: We obtained county-level IHD mortality and healthcare coverage data from the CDC databases for a total of 3,119 US counties. The age-adjusted prevalence of current lack of health insurance among individuals aged 18 to 64 years were obtained for the years 2018 and 2019 and were placed into four quartiles. First (Q1) and fourth quartile (Q4) had the least and highest age-adjusted prevalence of adults without health insurance, respectively. IHD mortality rates, adjusted for age through the direct method, were obtained for the same years and compared among quartiles. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression for each demographic variable was conducted with the quartiles as an ordinal predictor variable and the age-adjusted mortality rate as the outcome variable.
Results: We identified a total of 172,942 deaths related to ischemic heart disease between 2018 and 2019. Overall AAMR was higher in Q4 (92.79 [95% CI, 92.35-93.23]) compared to Q1 (83.14 [95% CI, 82.74-83.54]), accounting for 9.65 excess deaths per 100,000 person-years (slope = 3.47, p = 0.09). Mortality rates in Q4 for males (126.20 [95% CI, 125.42-126.98] and females (65.57 [95% CI, 65.08-66.05]) were higher compared to Q1 (115.72 [95% CI, 114.99-116.44] and 57.48 [95% CI, 57.04-57.91], respectively), accounting for 10.48 and 8.09 excess deaths per 100,000 person-years for males and females, respectively. Similar trends were seen among Hispanic and non-Hispanic populations. Northeastern, Southern, and Western regions had higher AAMR within Q4 compared to Q1, with higher prevalence of current lack of health insurance accounting for 49.2, 8.15, and 29.04 excess deaths per 100,000 person-years, respectively.
Conclusion: A higher prevalence of adults without healthcare coverage may be associated with increased IHD mortality rates. Our results serve as a hypothesis-generating platform for future research in this area.
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Alzheimers Dement
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The Bedford VA Research Corporation, Inc., Bedford, MA, USA.
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Method: Veterans with MCI or AD were identified based on having clinical notes or diagnostic codes in the VAHS database (2010-2019).
J Patient Exp
January 2025
NCN Health (Nathalia, Cobram, Numurkah), Numurkah, VIC, Australia.
This study investigated inpatient acceptance of a unique telemedicine clinical service piloted from December 2022 to June 2025 in 3 rural acute wards in Victoria, Australia. The use of virtual care was complementary to the visiting general practitioner (GP) model common in rural hospitals. The qualitative study employed 3 researcher-designed questions: Did you feel safe using the virtual healthcare doctor?; Did you feel the care you experienced was as it should be? And; If you were offered virtual care again, would you use it? Participants ( = 38) were predominantly over 65 years (95%).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBull World Health Organ
January 2025
Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Blockley Hall, 423 Guardian Drive, Philadelphia, PA19104, United States of America.
The World Bank's report, represents an important effort to specify the benefits and criteria of fair processes in health financing decisions. Here we argue that the report's justification for increasing public engagement in health financing decisions, one of its most novel contributions, rests on a widely shared but flawed assumption that public engagement will produce more equitable outcomes. Examining evidence from national-level public engagement initiatives cited in the report, we argue that there is no reason to assume that engaged publics will prioritize equity over other relevant values such as the maximization of population health.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Acquir Immune Defic Syndr
January 2025
Department of Epidemiology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia.
Introduction: There are persistent race- and ethnicity-based disparities in HIV incidence among gay and bisexual men who have sex with men (GBMSM) in the United States, partially driven by inequities in distribution of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). We assessed how additional modalities of PrEP beyond daily oral might affect uptake of PrEP and ongoing disparities in HIV incidence in the US.
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BMC Health Serv Res
January 2025
Society for Family Health, Abuja, Nigeria.
Background: Expanding access to equitable health insurance is an important lever towards the overall strategy for achieving universal health coverage. In Nigeria, health insurance coverage is low with a renewed government action on increasing access to and coverage of high-quality healthcare services to citizens, particularly for the vulnerable and poor population. Therefore, our study co-creates the priorities for expanding health insurance in Nigeria, focusing on key policy reforms, public advocacy, and innovative financing strategies to ensure broader and more equitable coverage for the population.
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