Association of County-Level Racial Diversity and Likelihood of a Textbook Outcome Following Pancreas Surgery

Residential racial desegregation has demonstrated improved economic and education outcomes. The degree of racial community segregation relative to surgical outcomes has not been examined.

Patients undergoing pancreatic resection between 2013 and 2017 were identified from Medicare Standard Analytic Files. A diversity index for each county was calculated from the American Community Survey. Multivariable mixed-effects logistic regression with a random effect for hospital was used to measure the association of the diversity index level with textbook outcome (TO).

Among the 24,298 Medicare beneficiaries who underwent a pancreatic resection, most patients were male (n = 12,784, 52.6%), White (n = 21,616, 89%), and had a median age of 72 (68–77) years. The overall incidence of TO following pancreatic surgery was 43.3%. On multivariable analysis, patients who resided in low-diversity areas had 16% lower odds of experiencing a TO following pancreatic resection compared with patients from high-diversity communities (OR 0.84, 95% CI 0.72–0.98). Compared with patients who resided in the high-diversity areas, individuals who lived in low-diversity areas had higher odds of 90-day readmission (OR 1.16, 95% CI 1.03–1.31) and had higher odds of dying within 90 days (OR 1.85, 95% CI 1.45–2.38) (both p < 0.05). Nonminority patients who resided in low-diversity areas also had a 14% decreased likelihood to achieve a TO after pancreatic resection compared with nonminority patients in high-diversity areas (OR 0.86, 95% CI 0.73–1.00).

Patients residing in the lowest racial/ethnic integrated counties were considerably less likely to have an optimal TO following pancreatic resection compared with patients who resided in the highest racially integrated counties.