EULAR 2022 Abstracts Identify Racial Disparities in Gout Prevalence and Healthcare

Racial identity is widely-accepted as a social determinant of health (SDOH) that impacts health outcomes. One of two new abstracts presented at European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) 2022 found that, despite previous commonly held beliefs, gout was more common in Black people than white people. The second looked at healthcare usage for gout treatment.

According to Lindsey Mulroony in the American Journal of Managed Care, “Notably, Black individuals had 2.7-fold higher rates of gout ED visits and 3.2-fold higher rates of gout hospitalizations than White individuals, after adjusting for age, sex, payer, region, and household income.Black women had 3.4-fold higher rates of ED visits and 4.0-fold higher rates of hospitalizations for gout compared with White women, higher than the respective rates found for men, 2.5 and 2.8. Although mean costs for ED visits were similar for both groups, hospitalizations were more costly for Black patients (adjusted difference, $1055.3; 95% CI, $553.1-$1557.5).”

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(Source: AJMC, June 23rd, 2022)