TABLE 3.
Racial/Ethnic Disparities Within Health Centers, 2009–2014
| N* | Absolute disparity in 2009 (white-non-white) (95% CI) |
Absolute disparity in 2014 (white-non-white) (95% CI) |
Mean annual adjusted change from 2009 to 2014 (95% CI)†,‡ | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage points | Percentage points | Percentage points | |||||
| Controlled hypertension | |||||||
| White/Black | 672 | 8.73 | (7.37 to 10.09) | 7.59 | (6.97 to 8.21) | −0.04 | (−0.28 to 0.19) |
| White/Hispanic | 694 | 0.73 | (−0.80 to 2.24) | −0.48 | (−1.13 to 0.18) | −0.31 | (−0.57 to −0.05) |
| Controlled diabetes | |||||||
| White/Black | 577 | 3.35 | (2.02 to 4.68) | 2.26 | (1.54 to 2.97) | −0.34 | (−0.62 to −0.06) |
| White/Hispanic | 623 | 4.40 | (2.82 to 5.99) | 2.48 | (1.71 to 3.25) | −0.14 | (−0.43 to 0.14) |
| Normal birthweight | |||||||
| White/Black | 288 | 2.58 | (1.17 to 3.98) | 1.95 | (0.98 to 2.93) | −0.01 | (−0.37 to 0.19) |
| White/Hispanic | 384 | −2.49 | (−4.69 to −0.30) | −1.39 | (−2.55 to −0.22) | 0.20 | (−0.12 to 0.57) |
Estimates shown represent authors’ calculations from generalized estimating equations. Disparity estimates in 2009 and 2014 represent the marginal, unweighted mean of absolute, within-center disparities between the two racial/ethnic groups, where the mean rate for black or Hispanic patients is subtracted from the mean rate for non-Hispanic white patients. For all estimates, white patients are the referent group, where a positive disparity indicates a more favorable outcome for white patients and a negative disparity indicates a less favorable outcome for white patients. For all estimates, all centers are weighted equally; this excludes centers not contributing at least 20 patients to the denominator for each racial/ethnic group in the measure. *N represents number of centers contributing at least 20 patients to each denominator for the two racial/ethnic groups being compared. The number of patients represented varies by measure, racial/ethnic comparison, and year and is > 20,000 for all measures. †The mean adjusted change represents the linear time trend measured by the model or the year coefficient. ‡Adjusted for confounding health center characteristics, including the percent of the health center patient population that was male, over age 65, uninsured, Medicaid insured, privately insured, under 100% of FPL, homeless, whose primary language is not English, health center size (total number of patients served), grant funding per patient, and whether the center was located in an urban versus non-urban area