Multimorbidity, Mental Illness, and Quality of Care: Preventable Hospitalizations among Medicare Beneficiaries
Table 1
Description of study sample characteristics by multimorbidity categories among Medicare beneficiaries Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, 2000–2005.
Total
Multimorbidity categories
MM/MI
MM/No MI
No MM
Sig
Wt%
Wt%
Wt%
Wt%
ALL
8,963
100.0
13.8
66.5
19.7
***
Panels
***
2000–2002
2,244
24.0
8.8
71.6
19.6
2001–2003
2,260
25.1
13.8
65.8
20.4
2002–2004
2,217
24.7
16.1
65.0
19.0
2003–2005
2,242
26.2
16.2
64.0
19.7
Sex
***
Women
5,011
56.8
15.6
66.8
17.6
Men
3,952
43.2
11.5
66.1
22.4
Race/ethnicity
***
White
7,156
80.4
13.3
67.3
19.4
African American
892
9.4
13.2
69.0
17.8
Latino
563
6.3
20.0
56.7
23.3
Others
339
3.9
16.0
61.3
22.7
Age in years
***
Less than 55
778
6.1
44.2
37.1
18.7
56–64
488
6.5
38.9
53.4
7.7
65–69
1,816
26.1
10.1
64.1
25.8
70–74
1,676
20.3
11.1
67.5
21.4
75 and older
4,205
41.1
9.1
74.0
16.9
Marital status
***
Married
4,745
55.9
11.6
67.2
21.3
Widowed
2,791
28.9
12.1
72.5
15.4
Divorced/separated
904
10.5
27.3
54.0
18.7
Others
519
4.7
20.9
50.1
29.0
Metro status
Metro
6,002
71.2
13.8
65.9
20.3
Not metro
2,960
28.8
13.9
68.0
18.0
Education
***
No high school
2,875
30.0
15.9
66.8
17.3
High school
3,251
36.7
13.4
67.6
19.0
Some college
1,229
14.4
14.8
65.9
19.3
College
1,578
18.9
10.5
64.7
24.8
Poverty status
***
GT 200% FPL
4,107
49.0
9.9
67.6
22.5
LT 200% FPL
4,856
51.0
17.5
65.5
17.0
General health
***
Excellent
1,166
13.7
4.3
61.2
34.4
Very good
2,318
27.0
7.4
65.6
27.1
Good
2,896
32.1
11.5
71.9
16.6
Fair
1,797
19.2
22.7
67.9
9.4
Poor
747
8.0
39.2
54.8
5.9
Functional status (ADL)
***
None
6,199
71.1
9.7
66.4
23.9
1–3
1,924
20.7
20.6
69.3
10.1
3 or more
825
8.2
31.8
61.3
6.9
Body mass index
***
Underweight
201
2.1
12.2
64.2
23.6
Normal
3,128
34.0
11.9
64.8
23.3
Overweight
3,385
38.7
12.1
67.7
20.2
Obese
1,900
22.2
17.9
67.4
14.7
Morbid
283
3.0
29.1
64.2
6.7
Smoking status
***
Current smoker
1,199
13.5
24.6
56.0
19.3
Past smoker
4,145
47.0
12.4
69.1
18.5
Never smoked
3,605
39.5
11.8
67.2
21.0
Care coordination
***
PCP/SPEC
1,917
23.1
17.1
72.6
10.4
SPEC only
917
11.0
14.0
72.0
14.0
PCP only
3,024
36.2
13.2
68.1
18.7
None
2,489
29.7
11.6
63.3
25.2
Note: Based on 8,963 Medicare beneficiaries who were followed for 3 years and were first interviewed either in 2000, 2001, 2002, or 2003 and not enrolled in Medicare Health Maintenance organizations during the observation years. Asterisks represent significant group differences between multimorbidity categories and sample characteristics based on chi-square tests at . ADL: activities of daily living; FPL: federal poverty line; GE: greater than or equal; Wt: weighted, MM/MI: multimorbidity with mental illness; MM/No MI: multimorbidity without mental illness; No MM: no multimorbidity or only one condition; PCP/SPEC: primary care provider and specialty care use; SPEC: specialist care use only; PCP: primary care provider use only.
