Disparities in Health Care Utilization of Adults With Traumatic Brain Injuries Are Related to Insurance, Race, and Ethnicity: A Systematic Review.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To characterize racial/ethnic and insurance disparities in the utilization of healthcare services among US adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI). METHODS: The PubMed database was used to search for articles that directly examined the association between race/ethnicity and insurance disparities and healthcare utilization among patients with TBI. Eleven articles that met the criteria and were published between June 2011 and June 2016 were finally included in the review. RESULTS: Lack of insurance was significantly associated with decreased use of inhospital and posthospital healthcare services among patients with TBI. However, mixed results were reported for the associations between insurance types and healthcare utilization. The majority of studies reported that racial/ethnic minorities were less likely to use inhospital and posthospital healthcare services, while some studies did not indicate any significant relation between race/ethnicity and healthcare utilization among patients with TBI. CONCLUSIONS: This review provides evidence of a relation between insurance status and healthcare utilization among US adults with TBI. Insurance status may also account for some portion of the relation between race/ethnicity and healthcare utilization.