Disparities In Healthcare Outcome Measures Following Elective Surgery For Osteoarthritis From 2004 To 2018 In Ontario, Canada

Purpose: The burden of osteoarthritis (OA) is unequally distributed along social status (SS) dimensions such as income and geographic location. There is also evidence of SS disparities in healthcare outcome measures (e.g., hospital readmissions), particularly in jurisdictions with unequal access to healthcare. However, it is less clear if this is the case in areas with universal access to care and particularly in the OA surgical population. In the Canadian setting of universal access to care and with a focus on patients with OA undergoing major elective surgery, the goals of this study were to examine whether SS indicators explain healthcare outcome measures following surgery and to examine whether SS disparities have changed from 2004 to 2018.