Open AccessExamining Trends in Black-White Disparity in Traumatic Spinal Cord Injuries among Pregnancy-Related Hospitalizations in the United States
Author(s) -
Deepa Dongarwar,
Ayleen Hernandez,
Laura Miranda,
Hamisu Salihu
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
international journal of translational medical research and public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2576-9502
pISSN - 2576-9499
DOI - 10.21106/ijtmrph.392
Subject(s) - medicine , demography , medicaid , ethnic group , population , public health , pregnancy , logistic regression , retrospective cohort study , family medicine , health care , environmental health , surgery , nursing , sociology , biology , anthropology , economics , genetics , economic growth
The proportion of women with traumatic Spinal Cord Injuries (tSCI) is increasing globally, yet there is a dearth of data in the literature on female-specific health conditions, such as pregnancy, in this population. In this retrospective cohort study, we sought to fill the gap in the literature regarding racial differences in the trends of tSCI among hospitalized pregnant women. Using Nationwide Inpatient Sample data, all hospitalizations among pregnant women with tSCI were identified. Joinpoint regression analyses were utilized to examine the temporal trends in the rates of tSCI among the entire pregnant hospitalized population in the US during the 10-year study period of 2009-2018. We compared the tSCI hospitalization trends between non-Hispanic (NH) Blacks and NH-Whites. Overall, there was an increase in the rates of tSCI in the entire pregnant population, during the study period (Average annual percentage change [AAPC]: 7.1, 95% CI: 1.2, 13.4). The rates of tSCI were consistently higher in NH-Blacks in comparison to NH-Whites. More public health policies should be directed at preventing acute tSCIs during pregnancy and physicians should understand how to meet the needs of pregnant patients with tSCI, especially those who belong to racial/ethnic minority groups. Copyright © 2022 Dongarwar et al. Published by Global Health and Education Projects, Inc. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0.