title: Racial differences in the utilization of oral anticoagulant therapy in heart failure: a study of elderly hospitalized patients.
abstract: To assess racial differences in the use of oral anticoagulant therapy for patients with heart failure, we conducted a cohort study of 30 hospitals in northeast Ohio. For 12,911 Medicare enrollees consecutively admitted in 1992 through 1994 with heart failure, crude and adjusted odds of being on oral anticoagulation were determined. The crude and adjusted odds of being African Americans on oral anticoagulant therapy relative to whites were 0.57 (95% confidence interval 0.47-0.69) and 0.55 (95% confidence interval 0. 45-0.67), respectively. African-Americans with heart failure were much less likely than whites to receive oral anticoagulant therapy, even after adjusting for other variables associated with anticoagulant use.
authors.affiliation: Divisions of General Internal Medicine and Health Care Research, Department of Medicine, Louis Stokes Department of VA Medical Center, University Hospitals of Cleveland, and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, OH 44106-6033, USA.
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Ibrahim
authors.forename: C K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Kwoh
authors.forename: D L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Harper
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Baker
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D000368:Aged; D000925:Anticoagulants / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D044383:Black People; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000208:ethnology; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009820:Ohio; D010349:Patient Compliance; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D044465:White People; D001741:Black or African American
chemical_list: D000925:Anticoagulants