Examining Racial Differences in Access to Primary Care for People Living with Lupus: Use of Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions to Measure Access

Background: People living with lupus may experience poor access to primary care and delayed specialty care. Purpose: To identify characteristics that lead to increased odds of poor access to primary care for minorities hospitalized with lupus. Methods: Cross-sectional design with 2011-2012 hospitalization data from South Carolina, North Carolina, and Florida. We used ICD-9 codes to identify lupus hospitalizations. Ambulatory care sensitive conditions were used to identify preventable lupus hospitalizations and measure access to primary care. Logistic regression was used to estimate the odds ratio for the association between predictors and having poor access to primary care. Sensitivity analysis excluded patients aged >65 years. Results: There were 23,154 total lupus hospitalizations, and 2,094 (9.04%) were preventable. An adjusted model showed minorities aged ≥65 years (OR 2.501, CI 1.501, 4.169), minorities aged 40-64 years (OR 2.248, CI: 1.394, 3.627), minorities with Medicare insurance (OR 1.669, CI:1.353,2.059) and minorities with Medicaid (OR 1.662,CI:1.321, 2.092) had the highest odds for a preventable lupus hospitalization. Minorities with Medicare had significantly higher odds for ≥3 hospital days (OR 1.275, CI: 1.149, 1.415). Whites with Medicare (OR 1.291, CI: 1.164, 1.432) had the highest odds for ≥3 days. Conclusions: Our data show that middle-aged minorities living with lupus and on public health insurance have a higher likelihood of poor access to primary care. Health care workers and policymakers should develop plans to identify patients, explore issues affecting access, and place patients with a community health worker or social worker to promote better access to primary care.