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Changes in educational inequalities in knee and hip osteoarthritis surgery and non-surgery specialist care visits over time in Sweden.

Lindéus, Maria; Peat, George; Englund, Martin; Kiadaliri, Ali

Authors

Maria Lindéus

George Peat

Martin Englund

Ali Kiadaliri



Abstract

Objective
To examine changes in prevalence and socioeconomic inequalities in knee and hip OA outcomes, in more specific surgery and non-surgery specialist care visits, from 2001 to 2011 in Sweden and to what extent sociodemographic factors can explain the changes.

Design
We included all individuals aged ≥35 years resident in Sweden from 2001 to 2011. Individual-level data was retrieved from the Swedish Interdisciplinary Panel. Highest educational attainment was used as socioeconomic measure and the concentration index was used to assess relative and absolute educational inequalities. We used decomposition method to examine changes in prevalence and relative educational inequalities.

Results
A total of 4,794,693 and 5,359,186 people were included for the years 2001 and 2011, respectively. The crude prevalence of surgery and specialist visits for knee and hip OA was 36–83% higher in 2011 than in 2001. The increase in hip OA outcomes was largely explained by changes in the sociodemographic composition of the population, whereas for knee OA outcomes, changes in the strength of the associations with sociodemographic factors appeared more important. All outcomes were concentrated among people with lower education in all study years. The relative inequalities declined over the study period, while the absolute inequalities increased for knee OA outcomes and remained stable for hip OA.

Conclusion
Our findings show an increasing burden of all studied OA outcomes. Moreover, our findings suggest persistent educational inequalities with more surgeries and specialist visits among lower-educated individuals. Future research should incorporate additional variables to better understand and address these inequalities.

Citation

Lindéus, M., Peat, G., Englund, M., & Kiadaliri, A. (2024). Changes in educational inequalities in knee and hip osteoarthritis surgery and non-surgery specialist care visits over time in Sweden. Osteoarthritis and Cartilage Open, 6(2), Article 100470. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocarto.2024.100470

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Apr 7, 2024
Online Publication Date Apr 11, 2024
Publication Date Jun 1, 2024
Deposit Date May 13, 2024
Publicly Available Date May 13, 2024
Journal Osteoarthritis and cartilage open
Print ISSN 2665-9131
Electronic ISSN 2665-9131
Publisher Elsevier
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 6
Issue 2
Article Number 100470
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocarto.2024.100470
Keywords Osteoarthritis, Education, Inequality, Concentration Index, Blinder–oaxaca Decomposition
Public URL https://keele-repository.worktribe.com/output/826335
PMID 38680730

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