Honors Theses

Date of Award

Spring 5-9-2020

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Pharmacy Administration

First Advisor

Lauren Bloodworth

Second Advisor

Eric Pittman

Third Advisor

Erin Holmes

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

Introduction: Asthma is an inflammatory condition of the lungs that can have significant impacts on a patient’s quality of life. Asthma attacks can be very uncomfortable and even deadly in some cases. The objective of this study is to evaluate the treatment of asthma in the state of Mississippi and to describe the disparities between demographics to help healthcare providers identify patients who might be at risk for poor treatment and help those patients receive quality healthcare. Methods: The data was retrospectively collected from January to December 2014 Mississippi Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services claims data. This study is a retrospective, longitudinal, analytical, non-experimental design to describe the quality of asthma treatment in the state of Mississippi. The study uses two measures from the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS), the Asthma Medication Ratio (AMR) and Medication Management for People With Asthma (MMA). Results: The results are split into two main categories, AMR and MMA. The AMR section is then divided into categories for age, race, and sex. The MMA measure is further divided into Proportion of Days Covered>50% (PDC50) and Proportion of Days Covered>75% (PDC75) for the categories of age, race, and sex. The results showed significant differences among demographics for each measure except for MMA PDC75 by Sex. Discussion: These differences could be due to medication adherence issues, the misclassification of intermittent asthma as persistent asthma, or limitations within the measures.

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