Ethnic differences in hospitalization due to Essential Hypertension in Florida

Background: The analysis of Census data confirmed that ethnic minority groups are increasing at a rapid rate in the United States (US) with over 60% increase in Hispanic population in the past 10 years. Persons of Hispanic origin comprised 16.8% of Florida's population. However, few studies focused on Hispanic patients who received hospital care. The purpose of this study was to assess the ethnic-differences in demographic and health service characteristics of patients hospitalized for essential hypertension (EHT) in Florida. Methods: The administrative data (2005) from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) was used for analysis. Among 8950 patients with primary diagnosis of EHT, 1730 were Hispanics and 7220 were non-Hispanics. Results: The mean age and standard deviation of patients were 61.4 + 17.3 years. More Hispanics (57.9%) were older than the median age (61 years) compared with non-Hispanics (47.7%). There were more females than males in both groups. More non-Hispanics (19.0%) were admitted for non-emergency reason than Hispanics (13.5%). Among those who expired in hospitals, 72.7% were non-Hispanics and 27.3% were Hispanics. Majority (47%) of patients in both groups carried Federal/Medicare insurance. However, Hispanics were more likely to have State/Medicaid insurance or be uninsured compared with non-Hispanics (p < .01). More Hispanics (53.4%) than non-Hispanics (49.2%) incurred higher total hospital charges (US $ > 12,432.50 or median value) (p < .01). Conclusions: Type of admission, insurance status and total hospital charges were significantly different between Hispanics and non-Hispanics. Future health-care delivery studies should evaluate the causes and consequences of differences between Hispanic and non-Hispanic patients.