Association Between Neighborhood Deprivation and Number of Rheumatology Providers
Main finding · Number of rheumatologists vs ADI of practice locationResult — go to the resultRatio of rheumatologists per 100,000 people 2.1 timesAuthors' conclusion
Rheumatologists tended to practice in areas with less deprivation, resulting in twice as many rheumatologists per 100,000 people in the quintile of lowest deprivation as opposed to the quintile with the highest deprivation.
Study context
- Population
- Medicare Part D rheumatologist prescribers, serving a mean ± SD of 280 ± 208 Medicare Part D beneficiaries per year
- Participants
- 5,882 rheumatologists
- Exposure
- Number of rheumatologists by Area Deprivation Index (ADI) of practice location
- Outcome
- Number of rheumatologists in relation to the ADI of their practice location
Methodological detailsPoisson regression
- Poisson regression
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Number of rheumatologists vs ADI of practice location
Ratio of rheumatologists per 100,000 people
2.1 times
- Fewer rheumatologists for every increase of 10 on the ADI scale (range 0-100; higher = higher deprivation)
- 20.3% (P < 0.001)
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Trend in number of rheumatologists
- Peaked in 2016 and decreased steadily thereafter across all quintiles
Prescribing rate per 100 beneficiaries by ADI quintile
- Significantly different between quintiles across all studied drug classes except opioids; trends inconsistent and of unclear clinical significance
Original publication
Association Between Neighborhood Deprivation and Number of Rheumatology Providers. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). Published 18 November 2022. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →