Worsening Arthroplasty Utilization With Widening Racial Variance During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
J Arthroplasty
; 37(7): 1227-1232, 2022 07.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1729546
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Elective arthroplasty surgery in the United States came to a near-complete halt in the spring of 2019 as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Racial disparity has been a long-term concern in healthcare with increased focus during the pandemic. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of COVID-19 and race on arthroplasty utilization trends during the pandemic.METHODS:
We used 2019 and 2020 Center for Medicare and Medicaid Service fee-for-service claims data to compare arthroplasty volumes prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We compared overall arthroplasty utilization rates between 2019 and 2020 and then sought to determine the effect of race and COVID-19, both independently and combined.RESULTS:
There was a decrease in primary total knee arthroplasty (-28%), primary total hip arthroplasty (-14%), primary total hip arthroplasty for fracture (-2%), and revision arthroplasty (-14%) utilization between 2019 and 2020. The highest decrease in overall arthroplasty utilization was in the Hispanic population (34% decrease vs 19% decrease in the White population). We found that a non-White patient was 39.9% (P < .001) less likely to receive a total joint arthroplasty prior to COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated the pre-existing racial differences in arthroplasty utilization by decreasing the probability of receiving a total joint arthroplasty for non-White patient by another 12.9% (P < .001).CONCLUSION:
We found an overall decreased utilization rate of arthroplasty during the COVID-19 pandemic with further decrease noted in all non-White populations. This raises significant concern for worsening racial disparity in arthroplasty caused by the ongoing pandemic.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Arthroplasty, Replacement, Hip
/
Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
Limits:
Aged
/
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
North America
Language:
English
Journal:
J Arthroplasty
Journal subject:
Orthopedics
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
J.arth.2022.03.001
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