High socioeconomic status associated with improved outcomes for MPFL reconstruction
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Key takeaways:
- Socioeconomic factors were predictive outcomes for patients undergoing MPFL reconstruction.
- Surgeons can work to build relationships with providers to simplify referrals and streamline access to care.
Results showed high socioeconomic status, home ownership and full-time employment were predictive of shorter time to evaluation and surgery and improved outcomes for patients undergoing medial patellofemoral ligament reconstruction.
Researchers from the department of orthopedic surgery at NYU Langone Health performed a retrospective review of data from 70 patients (mean age of 24.8 years) who underwent primary MPFL reconstruction with allograft for recurrent patellar instability from 2011 to 2019. According to the study, researchers administered an email survey to record patients’ socioeconomic status and postoperative outcomes, such as VAS pain and satisfaction scores and Kujala scores. Average follow-up was 45.7 months.
Mean time to initial evaluation for all patients was 6.4 months, while mean time to surgery was 73.6 months. Researchers noted several socioeconomic factors were predictive of outcomes. A general health checkup 1 year prior to surgery was predictive of shorter time to initial evaluation, while home ownership was predictive of shorter time to surgery. Full-time employment was predictive of higher VAS satisfaction scores and higher Kujala scores.
“Patellar instability patients could clinically benefit from social interventions aimed at addressing socioeconomic risk factors for delayed evaluation/treatment and poor postoperative outcomes,” researchers wrote in the study. “At the individual level, sports medicine surgeons can aim to form close working relationships with primary care providers to simplify referrals and streamline access to specialty care for patellar instability symptoms,” they added.
Perspective
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The study by Shankar and colleagues is another report that adds to the growing evidence across all aspects of health and medical treatment, and that is social economic factors play a significant role in the time to treatment, the specific treatment and subsequent outcomes.
The first step to ameliorate a problem is to understand it exists and thus, the importance of this study. It will be interesting to follow the authors going forward as they formulate methods to improve equality across access to care, the specific care administered and, in the case of surgery, the postoperative recovery across all socioeconomic levels.
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