Background: Low-income working-age US adults disproportionately experienced health care disruptions at the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Little is known about how health care access and cardiovascular risk factor management changed as the pandemic went on or if patterns differed by state Medicaid expansion status.
Methods: Cross-sectional data from the behavioral risk factor surveillance system were used to compare self-reported measures of health care access and cardiovascular risk factor management among US adults aged 18 to 64 years in 2021 (pandemic) to 2019 (prepandemic) using multivariable Poisson regression models. We assessed differential changes between low-income (<138% federal poverty level) and high-income (>400% federal poverty level) working-age adults by including an interaction term for income group and year. We then evaluated changes among low-income adults in Medicaid expansion versus nonexpansion states using a similar approach.
Results: The unweighted study population included 80 767 low-income and 184 136 high-income adults. Low-income adults experienced improvements in insurance coverage (relative risk [RR], 1.10 [95% CI, 1.08-1.12]), access to a provider (RR, 1.12 [95% CI, 1.09-1.14]), and ability to afford care (RR, 1.07 [95% CI, 1.05-1.09]) in 2021 compared with 2019. While these measures also improved for high-income adults, gains in coverage and ability to afford care were more pronounced among low-income adults. However, routine visits (RR, 0.96 [95% CI, 0.94-0.98]) and cholesterol testing (RR, 0.93 [95% CI, 0.91-0.96]) decreased for low-income adults, while diabetes screening (RR, 1.01 [95% CI, 0.95-1.08]) remained stable. Treatment for hypertension (RR, 1.05 [95% CI, 1.02-1.08]) increased, and diabetes-focused visits and insulin use remained stable. These patterns were similar for high-income adults. Across most outcomes, there were no differential changes between low-income adults residing in Medicaid expansion versus nonexpansion states.
Conclusions: In this national study of working-age adults in the United States, measures of health care access improved for low- and high-income adults in 2021. However, routine outpatient visits and cardiovascular risk factor screening did not return to prepandemic levels, while risk factor treatment remained stable. As many coronavirus disease-era safety net policies come to an end, targeted strategies are needed to protect health care access and improve cardiovascular risk factor screening for working-age adults.
Keywords: COVID-19; adult; behavioral risk factor surveillance system; healthcare disparities; heart disease risk factors; mass screening; preventative health services.