Papers of the Week

We sought to investigate the impact of social determinants of health on pain clinic attendance. Retrospective data were collected from the Pain Center at Montefiore Medical Center from 2016 to 2020 and analyzed with multivariable logistic regression. African-Americans were less likely to attend appointments compared with White patients (odds ratio [OR]: 0.73; 95% CI: 0.70-0.77; p < 0.001). Males had decreased attendance compared with females (OR: 0.89; 95% CI: 0.87-0.92; p < 0.001). Compared with Commercial, those with Medicaid (OR: 0.69; 95% CI: 0.66-0.72; p < 0.001) and Medicare (OR: 0.76; 95% CI: 0.73-0.80; p < 0.001) insurance had decreased attendance. Significant disparities exist in pain clinic attendance based upon social determinants of health including race, gender and insurance type.