title: Does Identification of Previously Undiagnosed Conditions Change Care-Seeking Behavior?
abstract: To determine whether identification of previously undiagnosed high cholesterol, hypertension, and/or diabetes during an in-home assessment impacts care seeking among Medicare beneficiaries.
  
  
  
  Data from the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study, which recruited African American and white participants across the continental United States from 2003-2007, were linked to Medicare claims.
  
  
  
  We used panel data models to analyze changes in doctor visits for evaluation and management of conditions after participants were assessed, utilizing the study's rolling recruitment to control for secular trends.
  
  
  
  We extracted Medicare claims for the 24 months before through 24 months after assessment via REGARDS for 5,884 participants.
  
  
  
  Semi-annual doctor visits for previously undiagnosed conditions increased by 22 percentage points (95 percent confidence interval: 16-28) 2 years following assessment. The effect was similar by gender, race, region, and Medicaid, but it may have been lower among participants who lacked a usual health care provider.
  
  
  
  In-home assessment of cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood glucose can increase doctor visits for individuals with previously undiagnosed conditions. However, biomarker assessment may have more limited impact among individuals with low access to care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical and Health Economics, Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics, The University of Southern California, Verna & Peter Dauterive Hall, Office 414E, 635 DowneyWay, Los Angeles, CA, 90089.
authors.forename: Rebecca M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Myerson
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL.
authors.forename: Lisandro D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Colantonio
authors.affiliation: Joan and Sanford I. Weill Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY.
authors.forename: Monika M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Safford
authors.affiliation: Section of General Internal Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: Elbert S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006302:Health Services Research; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D006937:Hypercholesterolemia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D008484:Medicaid / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006278:Medicare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009819:Office Visits; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States; D044465:White People
keywords: Medicare; diabetes; high cholesterol; hypertension; screening