Although socioeconomic factors did not mediate
the relationship for number of hospitalizations, this
outcome was highly skewed, with most participants
reporting no hospitalizations, and this may have
accounted for the finding. When we dichotomized
hospitalizations into those who were and were not
hospitalized, the socioeconomic factors mediated the
relationship between race and hospitalization. In fact, the
odds of a hospitalization for African Americans decreased
from 1.49 to a nonsignificant 1.17, which clearly is
important. As hypothesized, no mediation was observed
for gender, suggesting that other factors led to these
differences between men and women in physician visits