How ethnicity affects the willingness to undergo knee replacement surgery

In order to investigate how differences in ethnicity played a part in determining whether or not to have knee replacement surgery, a study was performed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Researchers surveyed 193 African-American, Caucasian and Hispanic adults about the amount of money they'd be willing to pay to rid themselves of either mild or severe osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee. While mild OA knee usually includes minor problems with walking or work and moderate pain and discomfort, more severe OA knee can extend into issues with self-care like dressing oneself, extreme pain and discomfort, and even moderate anxiety and depression.

The willingness-to-pay (WTP) to relieve symptoms of OA knee for each of the two scenarios was highest for Caucasian participants of the study, lowest for African-Americans, and somewhere in the middle for Hispanics (33%, 17% and 26% respectively). When income was factored into the results, WTP was lower for both Hispanics and African-Americans than for Caucasians, with a more extreme disparity between the latter two ethnicities. According to the research, Caucasians place a higher value on OA knee improvements than African-Americans, and are therefore more willing to undergo a knee procedure that may be associated with pain, high cost or a chance of death. This theory may be in congruence with the lower numbers in knee procedures like total knee arthroplasty and knee joint replacement for African-Americans and Hispanics than for Caucasians.

-As reported in the Journal of Rheumatology

-By Greg Gargiulo