Study Results from Hospital for Special Surgery Update Understanding of Arthroplasty [Understanding the Influence of Single Payer Health Insurance On Socioeconomic Disparities In Total Hip Arthroplasty (Tha) Utilization: a Transnational Analysis]: Surgery – Arthroplasty

2024 NOV 05 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Researchers detail new data in Surgery - Arthroplasty. According to news reporting from New York City, New York, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Access to care varies between countries. It is theorized that income-based disparities in access may be reduced in countries with universal health insurance relative to the United States, but data are currently limited.”

Financial support for this research came from Anna Marie and Stephen Kellen Foundation TKIP Program Kellen Scholars Award.

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Hospital for Special Surgery, “We hypothesized that income-based differences in total hip arthroplasty (THA) utilization and outcomes would be larger in the United States than in Canada. We retrospectively compared all patients undergoing THA from 2012 to 2018 in Pennsylvania, the United States, and Ontario, Canada. We compared age-standardized and sex-standardized per-capita THA utilization in the United States and Canada overall and across different income strata, where income strata were defined by neighborhood income quintile. We also examined income-based differences in rates of 1-year revision, 90-day mortality, and 90-day readmission. Overall THA utilization per 10,000 people per year was higher across all income groups in Pennsylvania compared with Ontario (15.1 versus 8.8, P< 0.001 in lowest-income quintile; 21.4 versus 12.6, P< 0.001 in highest-income quintile). Income-based differences in utilization in the highest-income vs lowest-income quintile groups were greater in Ontario (43.2%) than Pennsylvania (41.7%). The adjusted odds for the lowest-income group compared with the highest-income group of 1-year revision were greater in Ontario compared with Pennsylvania (P = 0.03), and risk of 90-day mortality and 90-day readmission was similar between the regions. Income-based differences in THA utilization were more notable in Ontario than in Pennsylvania. In addition, patients in low-income communities in Ontario were at equal or greater risk relative to high-income community patients for adverse outcomes compared with patients in Pennsylvania.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Income-based disparities in THA utilization and outcomes were smaller in the United States than in Canada, in contrast to what might be expected. Level of evidence:III.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Understanding the Influence of Single Payer Health Insurance On Socioeconomic Disparities In Total Hip Arthroplasty (Tha) Utilization: a Transnational Analysis. Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, 2024;32(20):955-963. Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons can be contacted at: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Two Commerce Sq, 2001 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19103, USA.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Bella Mehta, Hospital for Special Surgery, Dept. of Medicine, New York, NY 10021, United States. Additional authors for this research include Susan Goodman, Michael Parks, Kaylee Ho, Fei Wang, J. Alex B. Gibbons, Vicki Ling, Bheeshma Ravi, Said Ibrahim and Peter Cram.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.5435/JAAOS-D-23-01178. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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