Characterizing Hispanic Veterans with Epilepsy: A National Population-based Study
Abstract number :
2.367
Submission category :
13. Health Services (Delivery of Care, Access to Care, Health Care Models)
Year :
2023
Submission ID :
480
Source :
www.aesnet.org
Presentation date :
12/3/2023 12:00:00 AM
Published date :
Authors :
Presenting Author: Gabriela Tantillo, MD, MPH – Baylor College of Medicine
Zulfi Haneef, MD – Associate Professor of Neurology, Neurology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston VA Medical Center; Maria Lopez, MD – Neurologist, Neurology, Miami VA Medical Center; Rizwana Rehman, PhD – Statistician, Durham VA Medical Center; Erin Sullivan-Baca, PhD – Neuropsychologist, Neurology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston VA Medical Center
Rationale:
United States veterans are at risk of neurologic comorbidities including epilepsy due to war-related exposures. Hispanic veterans comprise a growing portion of Veteran’s Health Administration (VHA) beneficiaries, however the characteristics of this population are largely unknown. We aimed to study the characteristics of Hispanic veterans with epilepsy (VWE), comparing them to non-Hispanics.
Methods:
The VHA Corporate data warehouse for the financial year 2019 was used to identify VWE by using a combination of anti-seizure medication prescription, seizure diagnosis listed on the problem list and at least one encounter with an epilepsy related diagnosis via ICD10-CM codes. Variables compared between Hispanic and non-Hispanic VWE included demographics, rurality, service era, utilization of clinical services/investigations, and service-connected injury. Chi-squared and student t-tests were used for comparisons.
Results:
Our study identified 56,556 VWE, of which 3,247 (5.7%) identified as Hispanic. Hispanic VWE were younger (median age 62 vs 66 years, p< 0.01), urban-dwelling (81.6% vs 63.2%, p< 0.01), more likely to decline to answer or have unknown race status (13.8% vs 2.8%, p< 0.01), and more likely to have served in recent missions such as the Persian Gulf War (41.6% vs 28.7%, p< 0.01) and the Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn (10.5% vs 5.7%, p< 0.01) compared to non-Hispanic VWE. Hispanic VWE had a higher utilization of all neurology services examined including neurology clinic visits, CT scans, MRI scans, EEG, epilepsy monitoring, and epilepsy center of excellence (ECoE) evaluations (see table 1, p< 0.01 for all). Hispanic VWE were also more likely to have a service-connected injury (75.1% vs 66.0%, p< 0.01) that was at least 70% or more (54.6% vs 42.3%, p< 0.01).
Health Services (Delivery of Care, Access to Care, Health Care Models)