Objective

To assess racial/ethnic disparities in preventive care practices among U.S. nursing home residents.

Method

To implement the Institute of Medicine definition of health care disparity, we used the rank-and-replace adjustment method to assess the disparity in receipt of eight preventive care services among residents and evaluate trends in disparities. The sampling design (stratification and clustering) was accounted for using Stata 11.

Results

The 2004 National Nursing Home Surveys data show White residents were more likely to have pain management, scheduled toilet plan/bladder retraining, influenza vaccination, and pneumococcal vaccination than Black residents. White residents were also more likely to have scheduled toilet plan/bladder retraining than residents of Other race/ethnicity. Significant Black-White disparities in receipt of influenza vaccination and pneumococcal vaccination were found. Time trend analysis showed that disparities were neither exacerbated nor reduced.

Conclusion

Persistent racial/ethnic disparities in preventive care among nursing home residents exist. We urge the development and implementation of targeted interventions to improve the quality of preventive care in nursing homes.