title: Using decision trees for measuring gender equity in the timing of angiography in patients with acute coronary syndrome: a novel approach to equity analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Methods to measure or quantify equity in health care remain scarce, if not difficult to interpret. A novel method to measure health equity is presented, applied to gender health equity, and illustrated with an example of timing of angiography in patients following a hospital admission for an acute coronary syndrome.
  
  
  METHODS
  Linked administrative hospital discharge and survey data was used to identify a retrospective cohort of patients hospitalized with Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) between 2002 and 2008 who also responded to the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS), was analyzed using decision trees to determine whether gender impacted the delay to angiography following an ACS.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Defining a delay to angiography as 1 day or more, resulted in a non-significant difference in an equity score of 0.14 for women and 0.12 for men, where 0 and 1 represents perfect equity and inequity respectively. Using 2 and 3 day delays as a secondary outcome resulted in women and men producing scores of 0.19 and 0.17 for a 2 day delay and 0.22 and 0.23 for a 3 day delay.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A technique developed expressly for measuring equity suggests that men and women in Ontario receive equitable care in access to angiography with respect to timeliness following an ACS.
authors.affiliation: University of Toronto, 155 College Street, 3rd floor, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 3M7, Canada. Arlene.bierman@utoronto.ca.
authors.forename: Arlene S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Bierman
authors.affiliation: University of Toronto, 155 College Street 4th floor, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 3M7, Canada. Adalsteinn.brown@utoronto.ca.
authors.forename: Adalsteinn D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: University of Toronto, 5 Thomas Elgie Dr. #301, Toronto, Ontario, M4G 4J6, Canada. Carey.levinton@utoronto.ca.
authors.forename: Carey M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Levinton
mesh_terms: D054058:Acute Coronary Syndrome / Q000628:therapy*; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017023:Coronary Angiography; D003663:Decision Trees; D005260:Female; D000069576:Health Equity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009864:Ontario; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D063507:Sexism / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*