Minority populations undergo total knee replacement procedures at lower rates but have higher rates of adverse health outcomes, according to a study in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality funded the study, which examined data from eight years in eight racially diverse states in the State Inpatient Databases. In the databases, patient race is categorized as white, black, Hispanic, Asian, Native American and mixed race.
Researchers identified 547,380 patients that underwent TKRs. The patients were divided into ethnic groups as follows:
• Whites: 87.24 percent
• Blacks: 5.88 percent
• Hispanics: 4.20 percent
• Asians: 0.46 percent
• Native Americans: 0.51 percent
• Mixed race: 1.71 percent
Here are four insights:
1. The study found minorities had lower rates of TKR utilization compared to the white population group.
2. Minorities were also less likely to undergo TKR in high-volume hospitals, as compared to other options.
3. The risk for in-hospital mortality was higher for certain minority groups.
4. The complication rates following TKR were significantly higher for the black, Native American and mixed-race groups.
"These findings create an opportunity for health care providers to consider differences in utilization and outcomes that may result directly from their referral patterns," said Yan Ma, PhD, a corresponding study author and associate professor in the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
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