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Papers of the Week


2023


Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent)


36


1

Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on racial disparities in neuraxial labor analgesia at a Texas level IV maternal care center.

Authors

Torres A, Ruiz L, Jepson L, Howell M, Carlson A, Stacey J, Hammonds K, Hofkamp MP
Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2023; 36(1):30-33.
PMID: 36578616.

Abstract

We hypothesized that racial disparities in labor epidural analgesia at our hospital that existed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic would be exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. We examined patients who delivered vaginally at our hospital for the last 6 months of 2019 and the last 6 months of 2020. We performed joint testing of coefficient values, and the interaction term between race and year of delivery was not significant (0.364). A multivariate logistic regression model found that Hispanic patients (odds ratio 0.555 [0.408, 0.756],  < 0.001) and Black or African American patients (odds ratio 0.613 [0.408, 0.921],  = 0.018) were less likely to receive labor epidural analgesia compared to White or Caucasian patients. Odds ratios of receiving labor epidural analgesia were higher with increasing gestational age (1.116 [1.067, 1.168],  < 0.001) and lower with increasing parity (0.789 [0.719, 0.867],  < 0.001). The year of birth that corresponded to before or during the COVID-19 pandemic did not predict whether a patient received labor epidural analgesia (1.247 [0.941, 1.652],  = 0.124). Because the interaction between race and year of birth was not statistically significant, we conclude that the COVID-19 pandemic did not exacerbate racial disparities in labor epidural analgesia at our hospital.