Skip to main content

Table 2 Associations between each variable and a 180-day gap, N = 17,385

From: Incidence of and predictors for antiseizure medication gaps in Medicare beneficiaries with epilepsy: a retrospective cohort study

  

Hazard ratio*

95% confidence interval

Age, per decade

 

0.97

0.88–1.07

Female sex

 

1.08

0.91–1.26

Race

White

Reference

Reference

Black

1.20

0.94–1.53

Hispanic

1.23

0.78–1.95

Asian

1.74

1.02–2.98

Dual eligible for Medicaid

 

0.75

0.60–0.95

Rural ZIP code

 

0.98

0.82–1.18

Reason for entitlement

Agea

1.17

0.88–1.54

Region

South

Reference

Reference

Midwest

0.85

0.69–1.05

Northeast

0.85

0.67–1.08

West

1.02

0.80–1.29

Any neurologist visit, 2015

 

0.90

0.72–1.12

Any primarily epilepsy visit, 2015

 

0.88

0.73–1.07

Unique medications, 2015

 

1.03

1.01–1.05

Unique ASMs (No.), 2015

1

Reference

Reference

2

0.37

0.30–0.45

3+

0.23

0.16–0.33

ASM proportion of days covered > 80%, 2014–2015

0.38

0.32–0.44

Older generation ASM, 2015

0.82

0.69–0.98

Total Part D out of pocket cost (per $100), 2015

1.00

0.99–1.01

Epilepsy type

Focal

Reference

Reference

Generalized

1.00

0.78–1.27

Both

0.76

0.54–1.06

Neither

1.00

0.82–1.23

Refractory epilepsy

 

0.96

0.76–1.21

Epileptogenic neurological conditions, 2014–2015

Ischemic stroke

1.26

0.98–1.61

Traumatic brain injury

0.76

0.44–1.31

Intracranial hemorrhage

1.21

0.79–1.86

Tumor

1.30

0.79–2.13

Meningoencephalitis

2.37

1.08–5.24

Cardiac arrest

0.56

0.16–2.00

Dementia

 

0.96

0.71–1.29

Depression

 

1.26

1.06–1.50

Charlson comorbidity index, 2015

0

Reference

Reference

1–3

0.92

0.76–1.10

4–6

1.20

0.82–1.76

7+

1.36

0.68–2.69

Acute care visits for any condition, 2015

0

Reference

Reference

1

1.06

0.85–1.33

2+

1.06

0.79–1.42

Primary ASM prescriber

Neurologist

1.10

0.89–1.35

Epileptologist

2.37

1.39–4.03

Female

1.05

0.86–1.27

Decades since med school

0.99

0.91–1.08

Physician extenderb

1.01

0.77–1.34

D.O.

1.11

0.74–1.33

# visits this patient, 2015

1.03

1.00–1.06

  1. ASM Antiseizure medication
  2. *Hazard ratios are adjusted for all other variables contained in this table. Variables that appear in Table 1 but not Table 2 were omitted due to non-proportional hazards, unless mentioned below. Bolded hazard ratios are significant at p < 0.05
  3. aEnd-stage renal disease was omitted due to unstable estimates with a small sample size and thus essentially reason for entitlement of age is essentially being compared with reason for entitlement of disability
  4. bHazard ratios for primary ASM prescriber were all computed in this model including only beneficiaries whose primary ASM prescriber was a physician, given data from the Physician Masterfile as covariates. Thus, the main model did not include ‘physician extender’ as a covariate, but we reran the model omitting physician variables and including ‘physician extender’ as a variable (N = 19,729) with little meaningful change to other reported coefficients