Skip to main content

Black Patients Less Likely to Receive Diagnostic Testing in Emergency Department

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on Aug 28, 2024.

By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 28, 2024 -- Black patients are less likely than White patients with a nonspecific diagnosis of interest to receive related diagnostic testing in the emergency department, according to a study published online Aug. 27 in JAMA Network Open.

Michael I. Ellenbogen, M.D., from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, and colleagues used a previously validated diagnostic intensity index to assess differences in diagnostic testing rates by race and ethnicity in an acute care setting. The study included emergency department discharges, hospital observation stays, and hospital admissions using administrative claims among emergency departments and acute care hospitals in Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, and New Jersey from 2016 through 2018. To estimate rates of nondiagnostic testing, nonspecific principal discharge diagnoses (nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain, chest pain, and syncope) were paired with related diagnostic tests.

Most (80.6 percent) of the 3,683,055 encounters in the study were emergency department discharges. The researchers found that compared with White patients, Black patients discharged from the emergency department with a diagnosis of interest had an adjusted odds ratio of 0.74 for having related diagnostic testing. In none of the acute care settings were other racial or ethnic disparities of a similar magnitude observed.

"White patients discharged from the emergency department had higher rates of nondiagnostic testing, suggesting higher levels of testing overuse. Although Black patients were subjected to less test overuse, this may have come at a risk of undertesting and missed diagnoses," the authors write.

One author disclosed being an inventor on a provisional patent for smartphone-based stroke diagnosis in patients with dizziness, as well as receiving industry grants.

Abstract/Full Text

Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Read this next

Declining Childhood Vaccination May Increase Risk for Vaccine-Preventable Infections

WEDNESDAY, April 30, 2025 -- Declining childhood vaccination rates may increase outbreaks of eliminated vaccine-preventable infections within the United States, leading to a...

AACR: Incidence-Based Mortality Dropping for Young Women With Breast Cancer

TUESDAY, April 29, 2025 -- Incidence-based mortality (IBM) declined from 2010 to 2020 among women aged 20 to 49 years diagnosed with breast cancer, according to a study presented...

AACR: Nonsurgical Treatment Feasible for Mismatch Repair-Deficient Tumors

TUESDAY, April 29, 2025 -- A neoadjuvant programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) blockade enables nonoperative management among patients with early-stage mismatch repair-deficient (dMMR)...

More news resources

Subscribe to our newsletter

Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.