ACR CONVERGENCE 2020—Evidence shows that African Americans have a higher burden of osteoarthritis, with lower use of conventional medications, and are less adherent to the medications they take. They also get arthroplasty procedures less often, and when they do have the procedures, they report greater pain, worse function and lower satisfaction with them. In RA treatment, Blacks are less likely to receive biologics. Disparities like these have persisted for decades, but race and socioeconomic data are not consistently collected despite their importance to health outcomes, experts said on Friday, Nov. 6.
This session, Address Racial Disparities in Rheumatology: RA, OA & Arthroplasty, was moderated by Amanda Myers, MD, of the Northshore Health System and featured presentations by Jasvinder Singh, MD, MBBS, MPH, professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and by Susan Goodman, MD, professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine.