Milken Institute School of Public Health Poster Presentations (Marvin Center & Video)

Poster Number

33

Document Type

Poster

Status

Graduate Student - Masters

Abstract Category

Environmental and Occupational Health

Keywords

diabetes, immigrant health, access to care

Publication Date

Spring 2018

Abstract

Immigrants to the USA present an interesting opportunity to test the classical public health question of the impact of place on a health outcome. Diabetes is a prevalent disease in the USA which is slated to rise in rate in the future. Currently, 9.4% of the country is diabetic, and another 28% of the country is prediabetic. We posed the question - is this impact felt disproportionately by immigrants as they live in the US for a decade or more? Our preliminary literature search indicated that this has not been studied extensively, although the impact of American fast food on foreign rates of diabetes has been explored recently. Using the CDC National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) public dataset, we performed preliminary analysis on the association between the variables measuring how long individuals had lived in the USA and whether or not they had ever been told by a doctor that they have diabetes (either type I or II). Our analysis indicated a statistically significant difference between rates of diabetes in immigrants who had lived in America for less than 10 years and more than 10 years after controlling for age, gender, and education. Based on these preliminary results, we will be building a stronger set of tests by controlling for any other potential confounders we discover from a literature search. The endpoint of such a project is to develop a dose-response or similar model connecting time spent in USA to risk of diabetes. We also will use the NHANES variables which measured patient satisfaction, insurance rate, and hospital utilization to assess whether diabetic immigrants are receiving an adequate standard of care compared with the general population. Through these two analysis, we hope to illuminate areas for policy change or programmatic activity which can lead to reductions in diabetes rates and prediabetes rates.

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Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Open Access

1

Comments

Presented at GW Annual Research Days 2018.

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Disparities in Diabetes Rates and Quality of Care within Immigrants in the USA

Immigrants to the USA present an interesting opportunity to test the classical public health question of the impact of place on a health outcome. Diabetes is a prevalent disease in the USA which is slated to rise in rate in the future. Currently, 9.4% of the country is diabetic, and another 28% of the country is prediabetic. We posed the question - is this impact felt disproportionately by immigrants as they live in the US for a decade or more? Our preliminary literature search indicated that this has not been studied extensively, although the impact of American fast food on foreign rates of diabetes has been explored recently. Using the CDC National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) public dataset, we performed preliminary analysis on the association between the variables measuring how long individuals had lived in the USA and whether or not they had ever been told by a doctor that they have diabetes (either type I or II). Our analysis indicated a statistically significant difference between rates of diabetes in immigrants who had lived in America for less than 10 years and more than 10 years after controlling for age, gender, and education. Based on these preliminary results, we will be building a stronger set of tests by controlling for any other potential confounders we discover from a literature search. The endpoint of such a project is to develop a dose-response or similar model connecting time spent in USA to risk of diabetes. We also will use the NHANES variables which measured patient satisfaction, insurance rate, and hospital utilization to assess whether diabetic immigrants are receiving an adequate standard of care compared with the general population. Through these two analysis, we hope to illuminate areas for policy change or programmatic activity which can lead to reductions in diabetes rates and prediabetes rates.

 

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