An Epidemiological Study Comparing Cross-Sectional Differences between Black and White Beneficiary Populations in Tricare Region Nine.

The problem at Region Nine TRICARE is that there is no population or community health assessment that identifies the beneficiary population based on a demographic analysis or epidemiological study. To set policy and plan programs it is vital that an assessment of the health of the population be conducted to determine whether health services are available, accessible, effective, and efficient. This Graduate Management Project examines the military beneficiary population in TRICARE Region Nine, Southern California. Direct care inpatient records for fiscal years 1993, 1994, and 1995 were reviewed to determine if there is a relationship in the prevalence of disease between black and white military beneficiaries based on race, gender, age, and socioeconomic status SES. The Defense Medical Information System DMIS, and the Retrospective Case-Mix Analysis System were utilized to extract based on the demographic variables mentioned above. The data was analyzed by race utilizing Chi square to test for significance.