Retrospective Cohort Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Endosc. Aug 16, 2022; 14(8): 474-486
Published online Aug 16, 2022. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v14.i8.474
Disparities in colonoscopy utilization for lower gastrointestinal bleeding in rural vs urban settings in the United States
Nagapratap Ganta, Mina Aknouk, Dina Alnabwani, Ivan Nikiforov, Veera Jayasree Latha Bommu, Vraj Patel, Pramil Cheriyath, Christopher S Hollenbeak, Alan Hamza
Nagapratap Ganta, Mina Aknouk, Dina Alnabwani, Ivan Nikiforov, Veera Jayasree Latha Bommu, Vraj Patel, Pramil Cheriyath, Department of Internal Medicine, Hackensack Meridian Health Ocean Medical Center, Brick, NJ 08724, United States
Christopher S Hollenbeak, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, 500 University Drive, University Park, PA 16802, United States
Alan Hamza, Department of Internal Medicine, Ocala Health, Ocala, FL 34471, United States
Author contributions: Ganta N and Aknouk M contributed equally to this work; Ganta N, Aknouk M, Nikiforov I, Bommu VJL, Patel V, Cheriyath P, Hollenbeak C, and Hamza A, designed the research study; Ganta N, Aknouk M, Alnabwani D, Nikiforov I, Bommu VJL, Patel V, and Hollenbeak C performed the research; Hollenbeak C, Nikiforov I, and Cheriyath P contributed in statistical analysis; Ganta N, Aknouk M, Alnabwani D, Nikiforov I, Bommu VJL, Patel V, and Hollenbeak C analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Pramil Cheriyath, FACP, MBBS, MD, MS, Director, Doctor, Department of Internal Medicine, Hackensack Meridian Health Ocean Medical Center, 1610 NJ-88, Brick, NJ 08724, United States. pramil.cheriyath@hmhn.org
Received: February 15, 2022
Peer-review started: February 15, 2022
First decision: April 12, 2022
Revised: May 14, 2022
Accepted: July 22, 2022
Article in press: July 22, 2022
Published online: August 16, 2022
Processing time: 180 Days and 16.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Colonoscopy utilization is lower in rural hospitals than in urban hospitals in the United States for all acute and chronic lower gastrointestinal bleeding. Patients in both rural and urban hospitals who present with lower gastrointestinal bleeds that undergo colonoscopy have decreased in-hospital mortality, an extended length of hospital stay, and higher total costs.