Nursing homes with higher proportions of Black residents with dementia are more likely to see hospitalizations at end of life, a Sept. 28 study published in the Journal of Clinical Outcomes Management found.
The research was based on 665,033 residents with dementia from 14,595 nursing homes across the U.S. between 2014 and 2017 who died during the study period.
Researchers used any hospitalization within 30 days of death as an indicator of quality of care, citing advanced planning and communication with healthcare proxies often avoids acute hospitalizations.
Nursing homes with higher hospitalization rates may have fewer resources and deliver poorer quality of care as a result of disparities in systems, researchers said.
Study findings:
- Black residents were 7.9 percent more likely to be hospitalized than white residents
- Black residents with severe cognitive impairment had elevated hospitalization risk of 4.9 percent compared to white residents
- Nursing homes with lower proportion of Black residents had a 5.2 percent higher risk for hospitalizations
- Nursing homes with higher proportion of Black residents had a 13.3 higher risk for hospitalizations