Health-care access among adults with epilepsy: The U.S. National Health Interview Survey, 2010 and 2013✩

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Epilepsy Behav
• Personal Author:
  Thurman, David J. ; Kobau, Rosemarie ; Luo, Yao-Hua ; Helmers, Sandra L. ; Zack, Matthew M.
• Description:
  Introduction ; Community-based and other epidemiologic studies within the United States have identified substantial disparities in health care among adults with epilepsy. However, few data analyses addressing their health-care access are representative of the entire United States. This study aimed to examine national survey data about adults with epilepsy and to identify barriers to their health care. ; Materials and methods ; We analyzed data from U.S. adults in the 2010 and the 2013 National Health Interview Surveys, multistage probability samples with supplemental questions on epilepsy. We defined active epilepsy as a history of physician-diagnosed epilepsy either currently under treatment or accompanied by seizures during the preceding year. We employed SAS-callable SUDAAN software to obtain weighted estimates of population proportions and rate ratios (RRs) adjusted for sex, age, and race/ethnicity. ; Results ; Compared to adults reporting no history of epilepsy, adults reporting active epilepsy were significantly more likely to be insured under Medicaid (RR = 3.58) and less likely to have private health insurance (RR = 0.58). Adults with active epilepsy were also less likely to be employed (RR = 0.53) and much more likely to report being disabled (RR = 6.14). They experience greater barriers to health-care access including an inability to afford medication (RR = 2.40), mental health care (RR = 3.23), eyeglasses (RR = 2.36), or dental care (RR = 1.98) and are more likely to report transportation as a barrier to health care (RR = 5.28). ; Conclusions ; These reported substantial disparities in, and barriers to, access to health care for adults with active epilepsy are amenable to intervention.
• Subjects:
  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Epilepsy
  • Female
  • Health Care Surveys
  • Health Services Accessibility
  • Humans
  • Male
  More +
• Keywords:
  • Epilepsy
  • Epidemiology
  • Surveillance
  • United States
  • Insurance
  • Access to care
• Source:
  Epilepsy Behav. 55:184-188
• Pubmed ID:
  26627980
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC5317396
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  55
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/44306/cdc_44306_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 610.53 KB]
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:32d581348bc9853f496b5df54c2edd95aac3e069c444d4ba2ee15329f523f567