Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Imaging Workup and Treatment of Knee and Hip Osteoarthritis

Background: There is limited evidence on sociodemographic differences in osteoarthritis management, particularly in non-African American (AA) minorities. We sought to identify differences in imaging modalities, administration of intra-articular injections, and total joint arthroplasty (TJA) between racial/ethnic groups.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed patients presenting to outpatient clinics with a diagnosis of hip or knee osteoarthritis from January 2013 to March 2020 at a tertiary center. Univariate analyses compared differences between groups. Multivariate logistic regression analyses determined sociodemographic predictors of imaging workup and treatment.

Results: In total, 105,873 patients were included. There were 74,769 (70.6%) Caucasian, 27,117 (25.6%) AA, 1,878 (1.8%) Hispanic, 1,479 (1.4%) Asian, and 630 (0.6%) Native American patients. Multivariate analyses demonstrated that AAs had decreased odds of undergoing a knee magnetic resonance imaging (odds ratio [OR] 0.77, P < .001) or injection (OR 0.94, P = .006). Asian patients had lower odds of receiving any hip X-ray (OR 0.72, P = .047) or knee injection (OR 0.83, P = .017). AA (total knee arthroplasty [TKA]: OR 0.51, P < .001; total hip arthroplasty [THA]: OR 0.57, P < .001), Hispanic (TKA: OR 0.69, P = .003; THA: OR 0.60, P = .006), and Asian (TKA: OR 0.73, P = .010; THA: OR 0.56, P = .010) patients had lower odds of undergoing TJA compared to Caucasians. We found that higher income quartiles had greater odds of receiving a magnetic resonance imaging and TJA, males had lower odds of receiving injections and greater odds of undergoing TJA, and Medicaid and self-pay patients had lower odds of undergoing TJA (P < .05).

Conclusion: After adjusting for sociodemographic factors, we found disparities in the imaging, administration of injections, and/or arthroplasty for AA, Asian, and Hispanic patients. Insurance status, income, and gender were also associated with imaging and treatments performed in managing hip and knee osteoarthritis.