Dr Mary Cushman: Disparities in Pulmonary Embolism Exist; We Need to Ask Why
We studied data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, which is a random sample of 20% of all hospitalizations in the United States, between 2016 and 2018. We ascertained all pulmonary embolism hospitalizations, whether a person was admitted for pulmonary embolism or PE, or had PE during the hospitalization, and analyzed the patterns of care and the outcomes of people based on social determinants of health, specifically race and ethnicity, insurance type, and income level. We found that there were differences in the presentation of PE, the treatments that were administered, and the fatality rates.
For example, amongst all people admitted for PE, those admitted with what we call high risk PE or PE that's more serious, were more likely to be Black individuals and Asian Pacific Islanders, relative to White people, with no differences between other racial groups and White people. We also showed that the actual overall hospitalization rate differed dramatically by racial group.