Table 3.
Healthcare Utilization for Persons with Communication Disorders Compared to Persons Without Communication Disorders (n = 33,166)
| No comm. disorder | Voice only disability | Speech/language (SL) disability | Speech/language + voice (SLV) disability | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % (n) |
% (n) |
p valuea | AOR (95% CI)b |
% (n) |
p valuea | AOR (95% CI)b |
% (n) |
p valuea | AOR (95% CI)b |
|
| Inpatient hospital stays | ||||||||||
| No stays |
91.5 (27,091) |
86.0 (1834) |
< 0.001 |
1.3 (1.0–1.5) |
82.9 (594) |
< 0.001 |
1.1 (0.8–1.6) |
77.4 (342) |
< 0.001 |
1.2 (0.8–1.7) |
| 1 stay |
6.3 (2001) |
9.4 (211) |
< 0.001 |
10.6 (81) |
< 0.001 |
11.3 (58) |
< 0.001 | |||
| ≥ 2 stays |
2.1 (728) |
4.5 (115) |
< 0.001 |
6.5 (48) |
< 0.001 |
11.3 (63) |
< 0.001 | |||
| Emergency department visits | ||||||||||
| No visits |
81.9 (24,158) |
72.5 (1505) |
< 0.001 |
1.4 (1.2–1.6) |
61.9 (442) |
< 0.001 |
1.5 (1.1–1.9) |
56.6 (256) |
< 0.001 |
1.5 (1.1–2.0) |
| 1 visit |
11.9 (3648) |
15.9 (381) |
< 0.001 |
19.7 (140) |
< 0.001 |
17.2 (82) |
< 0.001 | |||
| ≥ 2 visits |
6.2 (2014) |
11.6 (274) |
< 0.001 |
18.4 (141) |
< 0.001 |
26.2 (125) |
< 0.001 | |||
| Office-based visits | ||||||||||
| No visits |
20.5 (6193) |
9.0 (200) |
< 0.001 |
1.6 (1.4–1.8) |
16.5 (122) |
< 0.001 |
1.0 (0.8–1.2) |
13.7 (49) |
< 0.001 |
1.1 (0.8–1.5) |
| 1–3 visits |
44.7 (12,971) |
37.8 (764) |
< 0.001 |
35.2 (231) |
0.915 |
25.1 (108) |
0.452 | |||
| ≥ 4 visits |
34.8 (10,656) |
53.3 (1196) |
< 0.001 |
48.3 (370) |
< 0.001 |
61.3 (306) |
< 0.001 | |||
SL speech/language disability, SLV speech/language + voice disability, AOR adjusted odds ratios; CI confidence interval
aBivariate comparison of the communication disability group to the group with no communication disabilities
bOdds ratios comparing communication disability group to the group with no communication disability from ordered logistic regression analyses controlling for race/ethnicity, marital status, employment status, educational attainment, poverty status, region of residence, sex, age, health insurance, chronic conditions, and non-communication disabilities
cAdjusted odds ratios from logistic regression comparing each of the communication disability groups to the group with no communication disability are shown in Fig. 2