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Race/ethnic disparity in hypertension-related hospitalization in Florida.

OBJECTIVES
While racial disparity in the treatment of hypertension has been documented, disparity among hospitalized patients is relatively understudied. Our objective was to compare the characteristics among Black, White, and Hispanic patients hospitalized for hypertension.


METHODS
The de-identified, public use hospital discharge file of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) in 2001 was utilized. Discharge records with primary diagnosis of essential hypertension using the International Classification of Diseases code were included. The differences between three groups were tested using the chi-square tests and the multiple regression models.


RESULTS
Discharge records that belonged to White, Black or Hispanic in-patients (N=7102) were included. Average age (years) and standard error (SE) of patients were 53.1 +/- 0.4 (Blacks), 63.6 +/- 0.5 (Hispanics), and 66.7 +/- 0.3 (Whites). Most patients were discharged home, but more Whites (15.9%) were discharged to another facility followed by Hispanics (11.3%) and Blacks (9.6%). More Blacks and Hispanics were underinsured or uninsured compared with Whites. The adjusted length of stay was 3.2 (Blacks), 3.1 (Hispanics), and 2.9 (Whites) days (P < .01). The adjusted total hospital charges were not different.


CONCLUSIONS
Although the prevalence of hypertension was the highest among Blacks followed by Whites and Hispanics in Florida, more Whites (57.1%) were hospitalized followed by Blacks (28.6%) and Hispanics (14.3%). Further, the discharge status, insurance type and adjusted length of stay varied by race/ethnicity. Future studies should examine potential causes (severity of hypertension, comorbidity, and access to preventive care) of disparity between race/ethnic groups of Florida.