Racial/Ethnic Inequities in Use of Diabetes Technologies Among Medicare Advantage Beneficiaries With Type 1 Diabetes

Context: Racial/ethnic inequities have been observed in diabetes care.

Objective: To measure changes in prevalence of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and insulin pump therapy among Medicare Advantage beneficiaries with type 1 diabetes by race/ethnicity and to determine the impact of socioeconomic factors on racial/ethnic inequities.

Design: The prevalence of CGM and pump use was assessed by race/ethnicity for Medicare Advantage beneficiaries annually from 2017 through 2020. Models predicting technology use by year, race/ethnicity, age, sex, endocrinology visits, and measures of socioeconomic status were fit.

Setting: Community.

Patients or other participants: Beneficiaries with type 1 diabetes and 2 or more claims with a diabetes diagnosis in the coverage year.

Intervention(s): Insulin pump or CGM therapy.

Main outcome measure(s): Use of diabetes technology by racial/ethnic group.

Results: Technology use increased from 2017 through 2020 in all racial/ethnic groups. The absolute difference in use between White and Black beneficiaries from 2017 to 2020 remained stable for insulin pumps (10.7% to 10.8%) and increased for CGM (2.6% to 11.1%). The differences in pump use from 2017 to 2020 narrowed between White and Hispanic beneficiaries (12.3% to 11.4%) and White and Asian beneficiaries (9.7% to 6.6%), whereas the opposite occurred for CGM use (3.0% to 15.5% for White vs Hispanic beneficiaries; 1.5% to 8.0% for White vs Asian beneficiaries). Racial/ethnic inequities persisted (P < .0001) after adjusting for other characteristics.

Conclusions: Differences in diabetes technology use between racial/ethnic groups often persisted from 2017 through 2020 and could not be explained by demographics, socioeconomic status, or endocrinology visits.