New Health and Medicine Study Findings Have Been Reported by Researchers at University of Alabama Birmingham (Community-level Social Determinants of Health and Well-child Visits Among Alabama Medicaid Enrollees): Health and Medicine

2022 JUN 16 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Researchers detail new data in Health and Medicine. According to news reporting originating from Birmingham, Alabama, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Well-child visits focus on health promotion and disease detection and are critical to the appropriate provision of care. Evidence has shown that participation in well-child visits is associated with various patient-level factors; however, there has been an increasing focus on the influence of community-level social determinants of health (SDoH).”

Financial support for this research came from Alabama Medicaid agency.

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from the University of Alabama Birmingham, “This study explored associations between well-child visits and community-level SDoH at the census tract level among children enrolled in Alabama Medicaid. Through this analysis, it is possible to understand the distribution of care among this underserved population in different geographic settings, thus identifying potential disparities and areas for targeted intervention. Using administrative data from 2015 to 2017 enrollees in Alabama Medicaid that have been geographically linked to information on urbanicity and poverty, logistic regressions (both in total and stratified by age group) were estimated with separate community-level urbanicity, poverty variables, and individual characteristics. The regressions were repeated using a combined urbanicity/poverty variable. Looking at urbanicity and poverty together, with the exception of the least urban areas, it was those living in census tracts where there was discordance in urbanicity and poverty that had the highest likelihood of receiving well-child visits compared with those in census tracts classified as medium poverty (all urbanicity levels). There is a positive effect for Medicaid enrollees in the middle tertile of urbanicity in areas of low and high poverty and in wealthier more urban areas.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “If poverty and urbanicity were explored separately, some of the nuances would not have been apparent.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Community-level Social Determinants of Health and Well-child Visits Among Alabama Medicaid Enrollees. Population Health Management, 2022;25(2):209-217. Population Health Management can be contacted at: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc, 140 Huguenot Street, 3RD Fl, New Rochelle, NY 10801, USA. (Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. - www.liebertpub.com; Population Health Management - http://www.liebertpub.com/overview/population-health-management-formerly-disease-management/301/)

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Anne E. Brisendine, University of Alabama Birmingham, School of Public Health, Dept. of Health Care Organization and Policy, Birmingham, AL, United States. Additional authors for this research include Pradeep Sharma, Ye Liu, Julie McDougal, David Becker, Van T. Nghiem and Bisakha Sen.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1089/pop.2021.0258. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)