Demographic characteristics of veterans who received wheelchairs and scooters from Veterans Health Administration

Little is known about the reasoning process clinicians use when prescribing wheeled mobility equipment (WME) or about the outcomes of this process, i.e., how many devices are prescribed, to whom, how often, and at what cost. This study characterized veterans who received WME from the Veterans Health Administration. We analyzed variance in wheelchair provision based on sex, race/ethnicity, diagnosis, and age. Three years of data from the National Prosthetics Patient Database and the National Patient Care Database were merged, yielding more than 77,000 observations per fiscal year. Logistic regression analysis revealed associations between WME provision and age, sex, and race/ethnicity, when analysis was controlled for diagnosis and number of comorbidities. Hispanics (odds ratio [OR] = 1.864), African Americans (OR = 1.360), and American Indians/Asians (OR = 1.585) were more likely than Caucasians to receive standard wheelchairs. Hispanics (OR = 0.4), African Americans (OR = 0.7), and American Indians/Asians (OR = 0.4) were less likely than Caucasians to receive scooters.