Food assistance is associated with decreased nursing home admissions for Maryland’s dually eligible older adults

BMC Geriatrics

Table 1 Characteristics of the dually eligible older adults in the population studied

	2012 (n = 53,646)
Variable	Receiving SNAP^c		Not Receiving SNAP^c		Total		p value
Variable	(n = 28,628)	(53.4%)	(n = 25,018)	(46.6%)
Age							p < 0.001
65–69	7305	29%	7367	26%	14,672	27%
70–74	4406	18%	7215	25%	11,621	22%
75–79	4164	17%	5812	20%	9976	19%
80–84	3693	15%	4405	15%	8098	15%
≥ 85	5450	22%	3829	13%	9279	17%
Gender							p = 0.0105
Female	19,955	70%	17,183	69%	37,138	69%
Male	8673	30%	7835	31%	16,508	31%
Race/Ethnicity							p < 0.001
Black	10,191	36%	7513	30%	17,704	33%
Caucasian	10,560	37%	10,474	42%	21,034	39%
Hispanic	1694	6%	1175	5%	2869	5%
Other	4281	15%	2554	10%	6835	13%
Unknown	1902	7%	3302	13%	5204	10%
HCBS^a Waiver Status							p = 0.361
No	24,903	87%	21,829	87%	46,732	87%
Yes	3725	13%	3189	13%	6914	13%
Has QMB/SLMB^b							p < 0.001
No	16,984	59%	14,363	57%	31,347	58%
Yes	11,644	41%	10,655	43%	22,299	42%
Received Medicaid through Spenddown							p < 0.001
No	28,207	99%	24,516	98%	52,723	98%
Yes	421	1%	502	2%	923	2%
Mean Number of Chronic Conditions	2.6		2.9		2.8		p < 0.001
Admitted to nursing facility							p < 0.001
No	26,486	93%	19,808	79%	46,294	86%
Yes	2142	7%	5210	21%	7352	14%

^aHome & Community Based Services
^bQMB – Qualified Medicare Beneficiary; SLMB – Specified Low-Income Medicare Beneficiary
^cSNAP – Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

ISSN: 1471-2318