Asian American Medicare Beneficiaries Disproportionately Receive Invasive Mechanical Ventilation When Hospitalized at the End-of-Life

BACKGROUND: Asian Americans are the fastest-growing ethnic minority in the USA, but we know little about the end-of-life care for this population. OBJECTIVE: Compare invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) use between older Asian and White decedents with hospitalization in the last 30 days of life. DESIGN: Population-based retrospective cohort study. PARTICIPANTS: A 20% random sample of 2000–2017 Medicare fee-for-service decedents who were 66 years or older and had a hospitalization in the last 30 days of life. EXPOSURE: White and Asian ethnicity as collected by the Social Security Administration. MAIN MEASURES: We identified IMV using validated procedural codes. We compared IMV use between Asian and White fee-for-service decedents using random-effects logistic regression analysis, adjusting for sociodemographics, admitting diagnosis, comorbidities, and secular trends. KEY RESULTS: From 2000 to 2017, we identified 2.1 million White (54.5% female, 82.4±8.1 mean age) and 28,328 Asian (50.8% female, 82.6±8.1 mean age) Medicare fee-for-service decedents hospitalized in the last 30 days. Compared to White decedents, Asian fee-for-service decedents have an increased adjusted odds ratio (AOR) of 1.42 (95%CI: 1.38–1.47) for IMV. In sub-analyses, Asians’ AOR for IMV differed by admitting diagnoses (cancer AOR=1.32, 95%CI: 1.15–1.51; congestive heart failure AOR=1.75, 95%CI: 1.47–2.08; dementia AOR=1.93, 95%CI: 1.70–2.20; and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease AOR=2.25, 95%CI: 1.76–2.89). CONCLUSIONS: Compared to White decedents, Asian Medicare decedents are more likely to receive IMV when hospitalized at the end-of-life, especially among patients with non-cancer admitting diagnoses. Future research to better understand the reasons for these differences and perceived quality of end-of-life care among Asian Americans is urgently needed.