Abstract

Ensuring healthcare access is critical to maintain health and prevent illness. Studies demonstrate gender disparities in healthcare access. Less is known about how these vary with age, race/ethnicity, and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. We utilized cross-sectional data from 2016 to 2019 CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a U.S. telephone-based survey of adults (=18?years). Measures of difficulty accessing healthcare included absence of healthcare coverage, delay in healthcare access, absence of primary care physician, >1-year since last checkup, inability to see doctor due to cost, and cost-related medication non-adherence. We studied the association between gender and these variables using multivariable-adjusted logistic regression models, stratifying by age, race/ethnicity, and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease status. Our population consisted of 1,737,397 individuals; 54% were older (=45?years), 51% women, 63% non-Hispanic White, 12% non-Hispanic Black,17% Hispanic, 9% reported atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. In multivariable-adjusted models, women were more likely to report delay in healthcare access: odds ratio (OR) and (95% confidence interval): 1.26 (1.11, 1.43) [p?

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.ypmed.2021.106779

View details for PubMedID 34487748