Influence of Social Deprivation on Patient-Reported Outcomes in Foot and Ankle Patients.

Background: The impact of social health on patient-reported outcomes (PROs) is gaining increasing attention within the orthopaedic community. Few studies have explored any relationship between social deprivation levels and PROs in orthopaedic foot and ankle patients.

Methods: We retrospectively identified patients who presented to an orthopaedic foot and ankle clinic for new evaluation. Patients completed PROs including PROMIS physical function (PF), PROMIS pain interference (PI), and the Foot and Ankle Ability Measure (FAAM). Social deprivation was measured using the Area Deprivation Index (ADI), a metric that incorporates various domains of poverty, education, housing, and employment. The ADI score quantifies the degree of social deprivation based on the 9-digit home zip code but is not a specific measure to an individual patient. Briefly, a lower ADI indicates less deprivation whereas a higher score denotes greater deprivation. Patient characteristics and outcomes were summarized and stratified by the nationally defined median ADI. Multivariable linear regression models assessed the relationships between PROs and continuous ADI controlling for demographics (age, sex, race/ethnicity, marital status, and employment status).

Results: Our cohort consisted of 1565 patients with PRO and appropriate zip code data. Patients in the most-deprived median ADI split had more pain (median PROMIS-PI 62.7 vs 61.2, P = .001) and less function (median PROMIS-PF 37.1 vs 38.6, P = .021) compared with the least-deprived median ADI split. The clinical significance of these findings is unclear, though, given the minimal differences between groups for PROMIS measures. There was no relationship between ADI and FAAM scores.

Conclusion: More socially deprived patients presented to the clinic with marginally less function and greater pain. Although statistically significant, the clinical significance of these relationships is unclear and merits further exploration. We plan to continue to study the connection between social deprivation and patient outcomes in specific clinical conditions as well as before/after surgical interventions.

Level of evidence: Level IV, retrospective cases series.