Ethnic, racial factors may influence patient-perceived outcomes after TJA

Lavernia CJ. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2011. doi:10.1007/s11999-011-1841-y.

Racial and ethnic minorities have worse patient-perceived outcomes — well-being, pain and function — after primary total joint arthroplasty compared to whites, according to the results of a retrospective study. The differences were most obvious for African American patients.

Carlos J. Lavernia, MD, of the Orthopaedic Institute at Mercy Hospital in Miami, and colleagues examined the records of 1,749 patients undergoing total joint arthroplasty. There were 739 hips and 1010 knees in the study. Of the participants, 68% were women. The mean patient age at follow-up was 65 years.

The investigators assessed the patients preoperatively and at a minimum of 2 years regarding their perceptions of well-being, function and pain. In addition, the investigators used clinical assessment tools. They also evaluated the behavior of dependent measures between groups over time.

African American patients had worse preoperative scores, whether they were undergoing total knee or hip arthroplasty. All patients had substantial improvement postoperatively; however, African Americans who had total knee or hip arthroplasty continued to have worse scores on some measures, the authors wrote. Women had worse scores in both total knee and hip arthroplasty.