The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #45734

Zabedah Saad, MA¹, Hongdao Meng, MPH², and Bruce Friedman, PhD². (1) Research Associate, Center for Aging and Healthcare, in West Virginia, Inc., 517 Market Street, Dils Center, Parkersburg, WV 26101, 304-422-2853, zabedahsaad@hotmail.com, (2) Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, University of Rochester, Box 644, Rochester, NY 14642

Generalizability is one of the primary concerns in randomized controlled trials. Once the eligibility criteria have been established, it is important to determine the comparability of those who participated in the study and people who did not. This study used the screen data from 4029 voluntary and eligible applications in “A Randomized Controlled Trial of Primary and Consumer-Directed Care for People with Chronic Illness” (CMS No. 95-C-90467/2-01), to compare the characteristics of enrollees to those of otherwise eligible applicants who did not enroll. The applicants’ characteristics are: age, gender, Medicaid eligibility, ADLs, IADLs, and prior use of the following services: emergency room, hospital, nursing home, in-home nursing or physician, home health aide, therapist, and social worker. A site variable is included since the project involved two sites (New York and West Virginia/Ohio). We used descriptive statistics as well as multi-variate logistic regression analysis to describe the relationship between the above characteristics and program participation. We also tested how well the randomization worked using the screen data. We found that the following factors are associated with program enrollment: age, Medicaid coverage, prior in-home health aide use, prior social worker use and study site. We also found that the four treatment groups were comparable. This study demonstrated that screening data can be used to compare the differences between enrollees and otherwise eligible applicants who were not enrolled.

Learning Objectives: Participants will be able to

• Describe the relationship between applicants' characteristics and enrollment, as well as its implication on the generalizability of study results.
• Evaluate the usefulness of using application data to assess comparability among treatment groups in randomized controlled trials.

Keywords: Medicare/Medicaid, Chronic Illness

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.