Author: A. Yip, J. MacLeod, P. Leonard, S. Lutchmedial, J. Legare, A. Hassan
Year: 2018
Category:
Health Publications
Read the journal article from Science Direct
Previous studies have demonstrated the harmful effect of remote geographic place of residence on access to cardiac catheterization across Canada. However, little is known regarding the impact of these disparities in access to cardiac catheterization on long-term clinical outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of geographic factors on access to and long-term outcomes following cardiac catheterization in New Brunswick.
17,397 patients formed the final study population (inpatient: n=10,530; outpatient: n=6,867). The median length of follow-up was 1156 days for inpatients and 1203 days for outpatients. Following risk adjustment, patients who lived farthest from the NBHC were most likely to experience the longest wait times for cardiac catheterization, whether it was as an inpatient or as an outpatient (Table 1). However, distance did not emerge as an independent predictor of the composite long-term outcome of interest for either group (Table 1).
While increased distance from the tertiary care facility was found to be independently associated with longer wait times for cardiac catheterization in New Brunswick, it had no effect on long-term adverse outcomes. This suggests that geographic place of residence, and by extension prolonged wait times, are of minimal long-term clinical consequence in patients undergoing cardiac catheterization.
