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Insurance Type and Withdrawal of Life-Sustaining Therapy in Critically Injured Trauma Patients

JAMA Network Open, ISSN: 2574-3805, Vol: 7, Issue: 7, Page: e2421711-null
2024
  • 1
    Citations
  • 0
    Usage
  • 5
    Captures
  • 5
    Mentions
  • 0
    Social Media
Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

Metrics Details

  • Citations
    1
  • Captures
    5
  • Mentions
    5
    • News Mentions
      5
      • News
        5

Most Recent News

Life-sustaining treatment ends sooner for uninsured trauma patients

Early withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy (WLST) is more likely among uninsured trauma patients, according to a study published online July 24 in JAMA Network Open.

Article Description

Importance: Withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy (WLST) decisions for critically injured trauma patients are complicated and multifactorial, with potential for patients' insurance status to affect decision-making. Objectives: To determine if patient insurance type (private insurance, Medicaid, and uninsured) is associated with time to WLST in critically injured adults cared for at US trauma centers. Design, Setting, and Participants: This retrospective registry-based cohort study included reported data from level I and level II trauma centers in the US that participated in the American College of Surgeons Trauma Quality Improvement Program (TQIP) registry. Participants included adult trauma patients who were injured between January 1, 2017, and December 31, 2020, and required an intensive care unit stay. Patients were excluded if they died on arrival or in the emergency department or had a preexisting do not resuscitate directive. Analyses were performed on December 12, 2023. Exposures: Insurance type (private insurance, Medicaid, uninsured). Main Outcomes and Measures: An adjusted time-to-event analysis for association between insurance status and time to WLST was performed, with analyses accounting for clustering by hospital. Results: This study included 307731 patients, of whom 160809 (52.3%) had private insurance, 88233 (28.6%) had Medicaid, and 58689 (19.1%) were uninsured. The mean (SD) age was 40.2 (14.1) years, 232994 (75.7%) were male, 59551 (19.4%) were African American or Black patients, and 201012 (65.3%) were White patients. In total, 12962 patients (4.2%) underwent WLST during their admission. Patients who are uninsured were significantly more likely to undergo earlier WLST compared with those with private insurance (HR, 1.54; 95% CI, 1.46-1.62) and Medicaid (HR, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.39-1.55). This finding was robust to sensitivity analysis excluding patients who died within 48 hours of presentation and after accounting for nonwithdrawal death as a competing risk. Conclusions and Relevance: In this cohort study of US adult trauma patients who were critically injured, patients who were uninsured underwent earlier WLST compared with those with private or Medicaid insurance. Based on our findings, patient's ability to pay was may be associated with a shift in decision-making for WLST, suggesting the influence of socioeconomics on patient outcomes.

Bibliographic Details

Hoit, Graeme; Wijeysundera, Duminda N; Hamad, Doulia M; Nauth, Aaron; Atrey, Amit; Halai, Mansur; Walser, Eric; Nikouline, Anton; Nathens, Avery B; Khoshbin, Amir

American Medical Association (AMA)

Medicine

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