Social determinants of health: modeling and targeting patient propensity to attend pain clinic appointments

Abstract

Aim: We sought to investigate the impact of social determinants of health on pain clinic attendance. Materials & methods: Retrospective data were collected from the Pain Center at Montefiore Medical Center from 2016 to 2020 and analyzed with multivariable logistic regression. Results: African–Americans were less likely to attend appointments compared with White patients (odds ratio [OR]: 0.73; 95% CI: 0.70–0.77; p < 0.001). Males had decreased attendance compared with females (OR: 0.89; 95% CI: 0.87–0.92; p < 0.001). Compared with commercial, those with Medicaid (OR: 0.69; 95% CI: 0.66–0.72; p < 0.001) and Medicare (OR: 0.76; 95% CI: 0.73–0.80; p < 0.001) insurance had decreased attendance. Conclusion: Significant disparities exist in pain clinic attendance based upon social determinants of health including race, gender and insurance type.