Healthcare Utilization of American Indians - Concordance from Population-Based Estimates

摘要

Although the subject of disparity has been examined for more than a few decades, the current healthcare system is not completely color blind. In this study our hypothesis examines if Native Americans/Alaskan Indians (NA/AIs) receive quality care. First, the journal publications of the past 10 years were searched. As a result, data were extracted from 30 studies that contain multiple outcomes for meta-analysis to compare quality of care between NA/AIs and non-Hispanic white Americans. Each paper provides different statistical measures while reporting disparity in care, thus appropriate transformations are used to determine effect sizes for our random effects model. Occurrences of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and other cerebrovascular diseases are found to be more common among NA/AIs, who on average are 70% more likely to suffer from chronic diseases. Also, the analysis shows that NA/AIs have limited access to resources for treating these diseases (84%), which exposes these communities to risk and makes them more vulnerable. Thus, future research should focus on newer paradigms to improve healthcare access to the members of NA/AI community.