African Americans have 5 times higher amputation Rate
The overall amputation rate in northern Illinois is declining due to show a better health care for diabetes and peripheral vascular disease, such as new research results. But not everyone is rewarded. A new study from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine has found people in the African American community in Chicago, South and West Side have a five times higher amputation of the lower extremities than people in predominantly white suburbs and exurbs. Amputations are the canary in the coal mine for the quality of care, said Joe Fine Glass, lead author and professor of medicine at the Feinberg School.Many amputations are preventable. This means that primary care for minorities can not be very good.Fine Glass said the high rate of amputations means that people
are not closely monitored. They have gangrene or a skin ulcer that comes from the doctors attention very late and can not do anything, he said. You must take off their legs. This is the first longitudinal study - national or local - to examine the trends of amputation for almost 20 years. Most studies on the rate of amputation look at a point in time. The study is published in the May issue of the Journal of Vascular Surgery.The rate of amputation of minorities in Chicago likely reflects racial disparities in health care, Feinglass said. Diabetes is a condition that is very sensitive to the quality of care. The amputation rates give you a basic idea of ​​how the system works. He knew that in 1990 African Americans were more likely to have an amputation than whites. But
as the national trend of amputations declined in 2000, Feinglass wanted to see if the gap closed or at least reduced.The study examined hospital discharge data from the Illinois Department of Public Health for nine counties in northern Illinois, covering more than eight million people. Fine Glass then broke the statistics into three rings of the metropolitan region based on their zip codes. He found that amputations
Pages: [1] 2