Disparities of care in veterans with Parkinson's disease

Background: Disparities of Parkinson's disease (PD) care have not been assessed. Methods: We examined the medical records of 309 (83%) non-Hispanic White and 65 (17%) non-White Los Angeles veterans with PD from 1998 to 2004 to determine if care quality as measured by 10 PD indicators different by race/ethnicity. Results: In multivariate modeling, adherence to indicators was higher among non-Hispanic Whites (71% vs. 65%, risk ratio 1.15, 95% CI [1.07-1.32]) compared to non-Whites. Differences in adherence by race/ethnicity were greatest for depression treatment (P<0.05). Conclusions: We detected disparities in quality of PD care, particularly in depression treatment. Future research should determine causes for these so that interventions can be designed to reduce such disparities. Published by Elsevier Ltd.