ArticleBMC public health2020
Assessing the geographical distribution of comorbidity among commercially insured individuals in South Africa.
Article in BMC public health, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Measuring the geographic disparity of comorbidity in commercially insured individuals compared to the distribution of physicians in South Africa.BMC primary care · 2022Article
- Geospatial assessment of the convergence of communicable and non-communicable diseases in South Africa.Journal of multimorbidity and comorbidityArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundComorbidities are strong predictors of current and future healthcare needs and costs; however, comorbidities are not evenly distributed geographically. A growing need has emerged for comorbidity surveillance that can inform decision-making. Comorbidity-derived risk scores are increasingly being used as valuable measures of individual health to describe and explain disease burden in populations.
methodsThis study assessed the geographical distribution of comorbidity and its associated financial implications among commercially insured individuals in South Africa (SA). A retrospective, cross-sectional analysis was performed comparing the geographical distribution of comorbidities for 2.6 million commercially insured individuals over 2016-2017, stratified by geographical districts in SA. We applied the Johns Hopkins ACG® System across the insurance claims data of a large health plan administrator in SA to measure comorbidity as a risk score for each individual. We aggregated individual risk scores to determine the average risk score per district, also known as the comorbidity index (CMI), to describe the overall disease burden of each district.
resultsWe observed consistently high CMI scores in districts of the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal provinces for all population groups before and after age adjustment. Some areas exhibited almost 30% higher healthcare utilization after age adjustment. Districts in the Northern Cape and Limpopo provinces had the lowest CMI scores with 40% lower than expected healthcare utilization in some areas after age adjustment.
conclusionsOur results show underlying disparities in CMI at national, provincial, and district levels. Use of geo-level CMI scores, along with other social data affecting health outcomes, can enable public health departments to improve the management of disease burdens locally and nationally. Our results could also improve the identification of underserved individuals, hence bridging the gap between public health and population health management efforts.
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