Assessing the Impact of Demographic Factors on Presenting Conditions or Complaints Among Internal Medicine Patients in an Underserved Population in Central Florida

Background and objective Patients’ demographics (race, age, gender, and ethnicity) have been determined to affect patients’ health status. It has been established that chronic disease prevalence varies by race, age, gender, and ethnicity; however, not much is known about how these demographic factors influence presenting conditions or complaints within a student-run clinic (SRC). This study aimed to investigate how demographic factors in the Apopka community in Florida determine what internal medicine (IM) conditions or complaints patients present with at a student-run free clinic. Methods Electronic medical record (EMR) data for adult patients seen at the clinic from February 2019 to February 2020 were reviewed to collect information on patient demographics, IM presenting conditions or complaints, and body mass index (BMI). Binary logistic regressions were employed to investigate the relationship between demographic factors and presenting conditions or complaints. Results The majority of the patients were female (62.2%), with an almost equal representation of Hispanic (50.3%) and non-Hispanic individuals. About half of the patients visiting the clinic were either overweight or obese. Of the 167 patients, the average age was 44.17 and 44.32 years for males and females respectively. The most common presenting conditions or complaints included cardiac conditions (25.07%), diabetes (9.64%), gastric pain (9.21%), and upper respiratory infection (URI)/allergies (6.15%). Cardiac conditions were further broken down into hypertension (18.94%), dyslipidemia (3.94%), and palpitations (2.19%). Patient age was a contributing factor to the incidence of diabetes (p=0.002), hypertension (p<0.0001), and cardiovascular conditions excluding hypertension (p=0.021). There was a significant relationship between obesity and diabetes (p=0.036) and hypertension (p=<0.001). Conclusion SRCs can make use of the information obtained from this study to advocate for coverage of medications to treat diabetes and hypertension in this undocumented population to prevent morbidity rates. We believe our findings can also provide guidance in terms of instituting screening programs for these illnesses among the broader population and SRCs with different patient makeups.