Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Inpatient Interventional Pain Management for Lumbar Radiculopathy.

Background: Chronic pain is a common reason adults seek care; patients often feel that their pain is inadequately managed. Spine-related pain is the most common chronic pain concern, and lumbar radiculopathy is often the cause. Racial and ethnic disparities in the pharmacologic management of pain are well described, but less is known about these disparities regarding interventional procedures.

Objective: To study the utilization rates of physical therapy, epidural steroid injection, surgery, and spinal cord stimulation in hospitalized patients with lumbar radiculopathy across different races, ethnicities, and genders.

Study Design: A retrospective cross-sectional study design.

Methods: The National Inpatient Sample was used to identify 252,790 patients with lumbar radiculopathy, after sample weighting, from 2016-2019. Independent variables were race, ethnicity, age, gender, insurance, geography, year, and severity. Dependent variables were physical therapy, epidural steroid injection, spinal cord stimulator, or surgery (reference group). Conservative management was defined as nonoperative treatment ranging from physical therapy to epidural steroid injection. Data were analyzed with a logistic regression for complex surveys. Regressions were adjusted for age, insurance, geography, and other socioeconomic factors.

Results: Most patients were white (78.3%) and received surgery (95.0%). Severe disease was most common among African Americans (9.3%), but was similar across other races, ethnicities, and genders. Medicaid was more common among African Americans and Hispanics. An adjusted analysis showed that African Americans and Hispanics received more epidural steroid injections (odds ratio [OR] = 1.52; 95%CI, 1.3 - 1.8) and (OR = 1.43; 95%CI, 1.1 - 1.8) respectively; and physical therapy (OR = 1.65; 95%CI, 1.1 - 2.5) and (OR = 1.83; 95%CI, 1.2 - 2.8) respectively, than whites compared to surgery. African Americans received a spinal cord stimulator less often than whites compared to surgery (OR = 0.63; 95%CI. 0.4 - 0.9). Women received an epidural steroid injection more frequently than men compared to surgery (OR = 1.29; 95%CI, 1.2 - 1.4).

Limitations: Generalizability is limited because conservative therapies are often outpatient treatments.

Conclusion: Disparities were observed in lumbar radiculopathy treatment after independent variable adjustment. African Americans received conservative therapy more often than whites despite increased disease severity. Hispanics and women had similar disease severity compared to whites and men, respectively, but received more conservative therapies. Further investigation in outpatient settings is needed to definitively describe these disparities.

Key Words: Chronic pain, pain management, back pain, lumbar radiculopathy, epidural steroid injection, spinal cord stimulation, low back surgery, physical therapy, racial disparities, gender disparities.