United States: Expert evidence demonstrates the residential setting acts as a key component in determining how people recover from traumatic brain injury.
Post-traumatic brain injury (TBI) medical care access becomes limited following concussions because of neighborhood factors, according to research published in the March/April edition of the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation.
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The research team leader, Monique Pappadis, vice chair of population health and health disparities with the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, the results indicate a “need to improve access to rehabilitation services for persons with TBI living in communities with greater social needs,” koaa.com reported.
The research team studied Traumatic Brain Injury medical records for more than 19,000 Medicare beneficiaries in Texas between 2014 and 2018.
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Home health services delivered rehabilitation to 48% of patients, while rehab therapy took place at a clinic for 14% of patients.
The research group included the minority who did not receive any rehabilitation care.
Results showed that:
- People living in districts both wealthy and economically deprived received fewer house calls from home health services.
- Lower insurance rates in specific areas, along with rural residences, limited the availability of clinic rehabilitation services for patients.
- People living close to grocery stores received more frequent home health service visits.
- The odds increased that individuals with serious housing concerns would need outpatient medical care.
As the research team stated, overall, some of these factors “were associated with a decreased likelihood of an outpatient visit but an increased likelihood of a home health visit,” koaa.com reported.
Rural areas alongside areas with high uninsurance rates show diminished rehab service use because patients face challenges with transportation and issues with meeting copays, according to research findings.
Furthermore, researchers have noted that, alternatively, “seemingly contradictory” findings like the lower use of home health care in high-income areas “suggest that access to care may not always be ensured by financial means alone.”
“The intricate relationship between healthcare access and community socioeconomic factors necessitates sophisticated strategies to increase equity,” the team added.