Older Adults' Access to Primary Care: Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Disparities in Telemedicine.

Ryskina, Kira L; Shultz, Kaitlyn; Zhou, Yi; Lautenbach, Gillian; Brown, Rebecca T

BACKGROUND In 2020, primary care practices adopted telemedicine as an alternative to in-person visits. Little is known about whether access to telemedicine was equitable, especially among older patients. Our objectives were to (1) examine older adults' use of telemedicine versus in-person primary care visits; and (2) compare hospitalization for ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs) between the groups. METHODS In this retrospective cross-sectional study of 17,103 patients aged ≥65 years seen at 32 clinics in the Mid-Atlantic, primary care patients were classified into two groups - telemedicine vs. in-person - based on the first visit between March-May, 2020 and followed for 14 days. Using multivariable logistic regression, we measured the odds of being seen via telemedicine vs. in-person as a function of patient demographics, comorbidities, and week of study period. We then measured the odds of ACSC hospitalization by visit modality. RESULTS Mean age was 75.1 years (SD, 7.5), 60.6% of patients were female, 64.6% White, 28.1% Black, and 2.0% Hispanic. Overall, 60.3% of patients accessed primary care via telemedicine. Black (vs. White) patients had higher odds of using telemedicine (aOR, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.14-1.47) and Hispanic (vs. not Hispanic) patients had lower odds (aOR, 0.63; 95% CI, 0.42-0.92). Compared to the in-person group, patients in the telemedicine group had lower odds of ACSC hospitalization (aOR 0.78; 95% CI, 0.61-1.00). Among patients who used telemedicine, Black patients had 1.43 higher odds of ACSC hospitalization (95% CI, 1.02- 2.01), compared to White patients. Patients aged 85 or older seen via telemedicine had higher odds of an ACSC hospitalization (aOR 1.60; 95% CI, 1.03-2.47) compared to patients ages 65 to 74. CONCLUSIONS These findings support the use of telemedicine for primary care access for older adults. However, the observed disparities highlight the need to improve care quality and equity regardless of visit modality.