Measuring Healthcare Disparities and Racial Segregation in Missouri Nursing Homes

Abstract

Measuring and, ultimately, addressing disparities in long-term care quality continue to be a challenge. Although literature suggests that disparities in healthcare quality exist and nursing homes remain relatively segregated, healthcare professionals and policymakers stand to benefit from improvements in measuring both racial segregation and healthcare disparities. This paper quantifies the relationships between healthcare disparities and racial segregation using the disparities quality index and dissimilarity index. Results suggested that the more segregated the nursing homes, the greater the observed disparities. Multivariate regression analysis indicated that the proportion of Black residents in nursing homes is the variable that best predicts disparities.