System-level performance measures of access to rheumatology care: a population-based retrospective study of trends over time and the impact of regional rheumatologist supply in Ontario, Canada, 2002–2019

Table 3 Results of multivariable model evaluating whether a prescription for a DMARD was filled within 30 days after first rheumatology visit, among seniors who saw a rheumatologist within one year of their diagnosis

Predictor	Odds ratio	95% confidence interval	p-value
Year	Fig. 2B		< 0.0001
Resident in an optimal supply region (reference is low supply)	0.90	0.83–0.97	0.0059
Time from diagnosis to first rheumatologist visit			< 0.0001
0 days (reference)
1–183 days	0.66	0.61–0.72	< 0.0001
184–365 days	0.50	0.43–0.58	< 0.0001
Age	Figure 2 C		< 0.0001
CHF	0.94	0.73–0.97	0.014
Chronic renal disease	0.80	0.71–0.89	< 0.0001
Frailty	0.91	0.84–0.99	0.026
Number of ADGs			0.0042
<5 (reference category)
5–9	0.93	0.85–1.02	0.14
10–14	0.88	0.80–0.97	0.0083
≥ 15	0.83	0.74–0.93	0.0016

CHF Congestive heart failure; DMARD Disease modifying anti-rheumatic drug; ADGs Aggregated diagnosis group
The model was adjusted for clustering by physician
The following covariates were not significant in this model: sex, income quintile, rural place of residence, distance to nearest rheumatologist, chronic diseases: acute myocardial infarction, coronary artery disease, cancer cardiovascular disease, COPD or asthma, diabetes, deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism, hypertension. The interaction between supply and year is also not significant in the multivariable model (p = 0.23)

ISSN: 2520-1026