are race/ethnicity predictors?
GROUND: Prior literature suggests that blacks are more likely to be discharged against medical advice (DAMA). OBJECTIVE: We examined whether DAMA from general hospitals varies by race/ethnicity and whether this variation is explained by individual and hospital factors. DESIGN, SUBJECTS, AND MEASUREMENTS: We conducted cross-sectional analyses of 1998 to 2000 hospital discharge data, linked to the American Hospital Association data, on adults admitted for acute general hospital care in California, Florida, and New York. A series of hierarchical logistic regression analyses explored factors associated with DAMA, initially adjusting for age and gender, then sequentially adding adjustment for comorbidities, individual socio-economic factors, and finally hospital characteristics. RESULTS: Compared with whites, blacks had a 2-fold higher age-gender adjusted odds of DAMA, a risk that progressively diminished with increasing adjustment (final adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 0.95, 95% confidence inte
