AT THE ACS CLINICAL CONGRESS
SAN DIEGO (FRONTLINE MEDICAL NEWS) – A study of procedures at academic centers provides evidence that obese Hispanics in the United States undergo bariatric surgery at a much lower rate than whites and blacks. It also reveals marked regional variations in overall weight-loss surgery.
“Our findings do suggest that severely obese Hispanics are utilizing bariatric surgery much lower than other ethnic groups,” said study coauthor Ninh T. Nguyen, MD, FACS , chair of the department of surgery at the University of California Irvine Medical Center, in an interview. “Our research does not specifically address the reasons for this gap in the delivery of care. Further research will need to be done to understand the reasons and the ways to close this gap.”
Dr. Nguyen presented the findings at the annual clinical congress of the American College of Surgeons.
According to Dr. Nguyen, the researchers undertook the study to better understand how bariatric surgery is delivered across ethnicities and geographic regions in the United States.
The researchers analyzed statistics from the Vizient health care performance database for the years 2013-2015. They focused on patients at about 120 academic centers who underwent 73,119 laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, and laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding procedures. The patients were stratified by race and region.
Researchers found that bariatric procedures were performed at a much higher rate in the Northeast academic centers (2.21 per 1,000 obese persons), compared with the Midwest (0.73), South (0.50), and West (0.33).
In regard to race, the rates for blacks and whites were fairly similar in the Northwest (2.02 and 2.35 bariatric procedures per 1,000 obese persons, respectively), the South (0.59 and 0.63, respectively) and the West (0.45 and 0.43, respectively). There was a wider gap in the Midwest, with whites at 0.69 and blacks at 1.07.
Across the country, however, obese Hispanics were less likely than persons of the other two races to undergo weight-loss surgery. The gap was fairly small in the Northeast, where 1.74 per 1,000 obese Hispanics underwent weight-loss surgery, compared with rates of 2.02 and 2.35 among whites and blacks, respectively. But the disparity was much larger in the other parts of the country, with rates at 0.14 in the West, 0.11 in the South and 0.33 in the Midwest, compared with rates from 0.43 to 1.07 among blacks and whites.
The reasons for the surgery gap are unknown. Dr. Nguyen pointed to several possible explanations: “lack of education of obesity as a disease by the primary care providers and the need for referral to a bariatric surgeon for patients with body mass index greater than 40 kg/m2 or 35 kg/m2 with obesity-related comorbidities; poor understanding of the benefits of bariatric surgery and its low risk; lack of understanding of the urgency for treatment by the patient and provider; and hurdles in obtaining coverage for the operation by insurers.”
John Magaña Morton, MD, FACS, chief of bariatric and minimally invasive surgery at Stanford (Calif.) University School of Medicine and past president of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, doesn’t think discrimination is causing the disparity.
“It’s probably a reflection of insurance status – Hispanics tend to be less insured than Caucasian or African American patients – as well as preference for patients to go to nonacademic centers,” he said.
Indeed, a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis found that 21% of the 52 million Hispanics younger than 65 years in the United States were uninsured in 2015, compared with 9% of whites and 13% of blacks. Only Native Americans/Alaska Natives had an uninsured rate as high as Hispanics.
“In terms of need [for weight-loss features], it’s certainly there for Hispanics,” said Dr. Morton. “[Hispanic patients] have high rates of obesity and diabetes, both of which are helped by bariatric surgery.”
He said about 40% of patients in his Palo Alto, Calif., practice are Hispanic, reflecting the high number in the local population.
It helps that Dr. Morton and several of his partners speak Spanish. “If you have a welcoming environment,” he said, “that can make a difference.”
The study authors and Dr. Morton report no relevant disclosures. No specific study funding is reported.
