Potentially Preventable Hospitalizations Common Among Blacks and Hispanics

AHRQ News and Numbers

Release date: August 1, 2006

Blacks and Hispanics are hospitalized more often than non-Hispanic whites for diabetes and other conditions that good quality outpatient medical care often can prevent or control, according to a new report by the Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

The report found that compared with non-Hispanic whites:

• Blacks were nearly 5 times more likely to be hospitalized for uncontrolled diabetes, and Hispanics were 3.6 times more likely.
• Blacks were 3.5 times more likely to be hospitalized for a diabetes-related foot or leg amputation, and Hispanics were 2.9 times more likely to be hospitalized for this condition.
• Blacks were nearly 5 times more likely to be hospitalized for high blood pressure. The rate among Hispanics was 2.4 times greater than that of non-Hispanic whites.
• Blacks were 2.5 times more likely to be hospitalized for congestive heart failure, while Hispanics were 1.7 times more likely to be hospitalized for this condition.
• Blacks had the highest hospitalization rates for adult and pediatric asthma, perforated appendix, and dehydration. They also had the highest rate of low-weight infant births.
• Hispanics had the highest hospitalization rates for asthma in elderly persons, as well as pediatric gastroenteritis, and urinary tract infection.

For more information, see Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Potentially Preventable Hospitalizations, 2003, HCUP Statistical Brief Number 10 at http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs.jsp.

To arrange an interview with the authors of the report, contact Bob Isquith at Bob.Isquith@ahrq.hhs.gov or call (301) 427-1539.

Current as of August 2006

Internet Citation:

Potentially Preventable Hospitalizations Common Among Blacks and Hispanics. AHRQ News and Numbers, August 1, 2006. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/news/nn/nn080106.htm