Race, ethnicity, and other sociodemographic characteristics of patients with hospital admission for migraine in the United States

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelForskningfagfællebedømt

Background: Despite the growing awareness across the general population, migraine is often underdiagnosed and undertreated in socially and economically marginalized groups. The present study aimed to investigate the differential effects of race and income on other sociodemographic data and hospital length of stay in patients admitted to hospital with a primary diagnosis of migraine headache. Methods: We utilized the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) database to identify patients admitted to the hospital from 2004 to 2017 with primary diagnosis of migraine. Information on demographic and length of stay data was obtained. Only patients older than 18 years were selected and age outliers were excluded. Race groups were identified as “White”, “Black”, “Asian or Pacific Islander”, “Native American”, or “Other ethnic group”, as originally reported in the NIS database. Income was identified as the estimated median household income of residents in the patient's ZIP Code. Results: A total of 106,761,737 valid cases were identified. After applying our case inclusion criteria, only 61453 (median age= 42 years, range= 18–78 years) were included. Patients identified as “Black”, “Hispanic” or “Native Americans” were more likely to have lower household income (p < 0.001), whereas higher income was found for the patients identified as “White””, even when men and women were considered separately (p < 0.001). No effects of race and/or household income was found on the length of stay in hospital. Implications: The occurrence of migraine diagnosis on hospital admission in the USA can be impacted by dramatic culturally driven patient-clinician communication differences between ethnic groups.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftJournal of the National Medical Association
Vol/bind113
Udgave nummer6
Sider (fra-til) 671-679
ISSN0027-9684
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2022

Bibliografisk note

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Declaration of Competing Interest: All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.

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© 2021 National Medical Association

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