Abstract

Background: Healthcare disparity in the United States has been a concern in multiple fields of medicine, resulting in unequal distribution of resources among different populations based on race, location, and socioeconomic status. Healthcare providers seek to offer equal care to all, but access to care may be limited by multiple factors. Whether this applies to the management of benign bone lesions is unknown. The objective of this study was to assess how race and socioeconomic factors may affect patient treatment in the setting of benign bone lesions.

Methods: This multicenter retrospective observational study investigated the relationship between socioeconomic status and race with diagnosis (lesion type) and treatment (operative vs. non-operative), using a large database of benign bone lesion patients collected from suburban New York (N = 689). Patients of all ages diagnosed with a benign bone lesion between 2007 and 2021 were included in this study and 2021 US Census Bureau data for each patient’s zip code was used as a proxy for socioeconomic and racial status. Multivariate analyses of variance and cross tabulations were performed with bootstrapping to examine differences regarding tumor diagnosis and surgical intervention by racial/ethnic and socioeconomic variables.

Results: There were no statistically significant differences at the .05 level of probability (applying two-tailed tests) for diagnosis and intervention by these variables.

Conclusion: Diagnosis and intervention were not affected by various racial/ethnic and socioeconomic factors in this suburban New York cohort. In benign bone lesion treatment, healthcare disparities may be less prevalent than previously anticipated.

Keywords: Health disparity; Benign bone lesion; Race and socioeconomic status