Surgery · Public Health · 8 h ago
Study Finds Racial Disparities in Prehospital Airway Interventions Among Injured Adults
A retrospective cohort study of 18,280 injured adults found that Black patients received prehospital airway interventions and intubation less often than White patients. Neighborhood disadvantage did not significantly explain the racial associations; inconsistencies in the supplied abstract warrant verification.
- Retrospective cohort included 18,280 injured adults.
- Black patients received airway interventions less frequently than White patients.
- Neighborhood disadvantage did not significantly mediate racial associations.
- Abstract inconsistencies require checking against the full report.
A JAMA Surgery retrospective cohort study examined racial differences in prehospital interventions among 18,280 adults with injury severity scores above 9. Researchers used linked trauma and emergency medical services data from 2017–2021 and the Distressed Communities Index (DCI), assessing intervention receipt and associations with 24-hour and in-hospital mortality.
White patients received prehospital airway interventions more frequently than Black patients (9.1% vs 5.8%), as well as intubation (7.9% vs 4.0%). Patients from socially disadvantaged neighborhoods were less likely to receive these interventions, but DCI showed no significant interaction or mediation. Prehospital airway intervention and intubation were associated with lower adjusted odds of in-hospital mortality: adjusted odds ratios were 0.70 (95% CI, 0.52–0.93) and 0.63 (95% CI, 0.46–0.86), respectively.
The findings support further investigation of disparities in emergency trauma care, but the observational design cannot establish that intervention differences caused mortality differences. Only the abstract was available. Its blood-product and intubation results attributed to the “other race” group contain inconsistent counts and percentages and require clarification before reporting those comparisons.
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JAMA Surgery: Racial Disparities in Prehospital Interventions Among Injured Patients ↗This is an automated AI-condensed summary that has not yet been reviewed by an editor. Always consult the full item at the original source.