作者
Alexandra Lee Butters
发表日期
2023
简介
This thesis addresses health disparities among individuals with a genetic heart disease. Health disparities are avoidable inequities in provision of healthcare and can manifest in various ways including disease prevalence, morbidity and access to healthcare. They can occur due to factors such as sex, ethnicity and socioeconomic status. This thesis aims to improve understanding of health disparities in the context of genetic heart diseases, in order to achieve evidence-based and equitable healthcare. Chapter 2 investigates sex differences in clinical and genetic factors associated with adverse outcomes in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), the most common genetic heart disease. Significant differences were observed in disease course and outcomes, depending on genotype and sex. In addition to differences due to sex, this thesis examines health disparities with respect to ethnicity in two studies. Chapter 3 focuses on a multiethnic HCM cohort, finding limited differences in clinical characteristics but crucial inequities in access to genetic testing and therapies between ethnicities. Chapter 4 shows the critical need for openly accessible, large and diverse genomic reference databases, through in-depth analysis of a single nucleotide variant in a Pacific population. Finally, Chapter 5 & 6 establishes a comprehensive clinical dataset through linking a genetic heart disease registry with state-wide routinely collected health datasets to identify healthcare utilisation patterns, uncovering disparities and opportunities for preventive care. This study highlights differences in healthcare utilisation by clinical diagnosis and disparities by socioeconomic status …