Using County-level Variation in Renin-Angiotensin System Antagonist (RASA) Nonadherence Among New York State Medicaid Members to Inform Program Planning

Major Findings

Overall, urban areas of NYS experience both a high relative (%) and absolute (#) burden of BP medication nonadherence. While the relative burden of nonadherence is lower in New York City compared to other areas of the state, the absolute burden is significant due to the large population size. Among NYS Medicaid members, the prevalence of RASA medication nonadherence by county ranged from a low of 27.9% in Lewis county to a high of 46.2% in Schenectady county. The count of Medicaid members who are identified as nonadherent ranged from 51 in Schuyler county to 26,304 in Kings county, with a statewide median of 359.

The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the New York State Department of Health. Examples of Analysis performed within this publication are only examples. They should not be utilized in real-world analytic products.

How the map will be used, or has been used

Findings have been shared with NYS Department of Health program staff working on hypertension initiatives, including the Office of Quality and Patient Safety and the Division of Chronic Disease Prevention. This map has been used to help allocate resources to areas with a high burden of medication nonadherence.

ArcGIS 10.4 ESRI

Medicaid data for 2016, including numerator, denominator and percentages, obtained through NYS Medicaid Clinical Data Mart.

RASA medication nonadherence was defined as the proportion of days a Medicaid member was covered with an RASA blood pressure medication of <80%. The prevalence and count of RASA nonadherence was mapped using the quantile classification method in ArcGIS 10.4. Data were suppressed if the numerator for a given county was less than 20.

Donghong Gao, Research Scientist, New York State Department of Health
518-473-0459
donghong.gao@health.ny.gov

Donghong Gao, New York State Department of Health; Rachael A. Austin, New York State Department of Health. Accessed from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Chronic Disease Map Gallery.