Abstract
In health care, several studies have suggested worse outcomes in African-Americans. Our objective was to study the relationships of race with outcomes in a series of total hip arthroplasty (THA) cases.
A consecutive series of 2,435 total hip/knee arthroplasties (primaries and revisions) performed in a single hospital by a single surgeon were studied. Revisions due to infections were excluded. Data on race was available for 718 THAs which were finally included. Cases of African-Americans (AA) (n=55) and Whites (n=663) were compared on baseline demographics, Charlson, ASA, preoperative-diagnosis; preoperative and postoperative pain intensity/frequency visual-analogue-scale, QWB-7, SF-36, WOMAC, Hip Harris, Postel-D'Aubigne scores; and on postoperative transfusion rates. T-tests, Chi-Square, MANCOVA (age, ethnicity, BMI, and preoperative-diagnosis adjustments) were used. Mean follow-up: 3 years. Alpha was set at 0.05.
At baseline and compared to Whites, African-Americans were significantly younger (mean, 67 vs. 59 years), had fewer Hispanics (61% vs. 26%), and had higher BMI (28.5 vs. 30.6 Kg/m2) (all p≤0.048), respectively. Preoperative diagnoses were significantly different (p<0.001). There were no significant differences between the groups on preoperative scores after adjusting for confounders. Postoperatively, SF-36 bodily-pain (70 vs. 57), SF-36 mental-component-summary (56 vs. 53), WOMAC-total (5 vs. 12), and WOMAC-stiffness (0.14 vs. 0.57) were significantly worse in African-Americans (all p≤0.043), respectively. African-Americans underwent more transfusions (28% vs. 65%, p=0.001).
Compared to Whites, African-Americans underwent THA earlier in life, with higher BMI, and different preoperative-diagnosis. They also had worse postoperative scores and more transfusions. Race seems to be strongly associated with outcomes.
