From the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality:
Hospital admissions of Americans from the poorest communities for asthma and diabetes were 87 percent and 77 percent higher, respectively, than admissions for patients from wealthier areas for the same diseases.
Asthma and diabetes are potentially preventable conditions because good outpatient care can help to prevent the need for hospitalization. Despite national efforts to eliminate health care disparities, low-income Americans continue to have higher hospital admission rates for asthma and many other conditions.
Patients from the poorest communities were more likely to be hospitalized for:
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 69 percent; congestive heart failure, 51 percent; skin infections, 49 percent; and dehydration, 38 percent.
• Severe blood infection, stroke, and depression.
Furthermore, hospitalized Americans from the poorest communities were 80 percent more likely to receive hemodialysis for kidney failure, and 81 percent more likely to undergo procedures often done on an outpatient basis, such as eye and ear procedures.
Infants from poor areas were 47 percent more likely to be vaccinated for hepatitis B.