Aging & Social Change: Eleventh Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

Despite advances in the recognition and treatment of high-cost users of health care, the incidence of healthcare utilization remains high. Rates of hospital admissions and emergency room visits among chronic disease like COPD have become a targeted group for health management. COPD patients have multiple and complex health and social needs, but the impact of their unmet food needs is not well understood and warrants further investigation. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationships between COPD food insecure patients and healthcare utilization in San Diego County. A descriptive correlational design using retrospective data was used. Data were abstracted from the electronic health records of patients receiving services for COPD. The purposive sample included patients 40 years or older with an ICD 10 code AECOPD upon discharge from the emergency room or their hospital admission. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were used to describe patient characteristics and examine relationships among multiple independent variables and two dependent variables. This study contributes to the growing body of research supporting the association of upstream social factors and how existing programs can be utilized effectively to have downstream health outcomes such as healthcare utilization.