Examining racial disparities in the treatment of heart failure (HF) patients and the effects of palliative care (PC) consultation is important to developing culturally competent clinical behaviors.
Objective:
To compare burdensome transitions for Black and White Veterans hospitalized with HF after PC consultation.
Participants:
This retrospective study evaluated Veterans admitted for HF to Veterans Administration hospitals who received PC consultation from October 2010 through August 2017.
Methods:
We propensity-matched Black to White Veterans using demographic, comorbidity, clinical, hospital, and survival time data.
Results:
Propensity matching of our cohort (n = 5638) yielded 796 Black and White Veterans (total n = 1592) who were well-matched on observed variables (standard mean difference <0.15 for all variables). Matched Black Veterans had more burdensome transitions than White Veterans (n = 218, 27.4% vs. n = 174, 21.9%; p = 0.011) over the six-month follow-up period.
Conclusions:
This propensity-matched cohort found racial differences in burdensome transitions among admitted HF patients after PC consultation.
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