Given the associations between each of these health care-associated
indicators and poverty and black race (Table 2), when one compares
results in Tables 1 and 3, one finds a smaller multivariate than bivariate
regression coefficient for each of these indicators in relation to
amenable mortality. Nonetheless, the associations remain significant
with relatively high coefficients. The results in Table 3, for example,
can be interpreted as showing that a 10 per cent increase in a state’s
Medicare hospital readmission rate is associated with a 5.1 per cent higher rate of mortality amenable to health care, controlling for
poverty and black race.