Statistical AnalysisBaseline patient characteristics by SNF status were compared using t-tests for normallydistributed continuous variables, Wilcoxon rank sum tests for non-normally distributedcontinuous variables, and chi square tests for categorical variables. Negative binomialregression was used to examine the relationship between patient baseline characteristics andthe rate of hospitalizations and outpatient visits per person year of follow-up. Variables withno significant association with health care utilization in unadjusted analyses (malignancy,cerebrovascular disease, GFR) were not included in the multivariable models. All modelswere adjusted for incident vs. prevalent status at study enrollment. Patients were divided intoquartiles by Charlson comorbidity index in the analysis. Predictors of cardiologist visits inthe outpatient setting in the last year of life were analyzed using negative binomialregression. Given that the number of cardiology visits was fewer than other outcomes weexamined, only variables that demonstrated a significant relationship with cardiologist visitson bivariate analysis were included in the multivariable model. A two-sided p value <0.05was used as the level of significance for all analyses. Analyses were performed usingStata/SE Version 13.0 (College Station, Texas) and SAS version 9.3.
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