Are there racial disparities in access to deep brain stimulation surgery for patients with Parkinson disease?
There is a significant racial disparity in access to deep brain stimulation for Parkinson disease, with African American patients receiving fewer procedures despite favorable hospital characteristics.
AND RELEVANCE: Despite the fact that African American patients are more often discharged from hospitals with characteristics predicting DBS use (ie, urban teaching hospitals in areas with a higher than average density of neurologists), these patients received disproportionately fewer DBS procedures compared with their non-African American counterparts. Increased reliance on Medicaid in the African American population may predispose to the DBS use disparity. Various other factors may be responsible, including disparities in access to care, cultural biases or beliefs, and/or socioeconomic status.
Chan et al. (Mon,) studied this question.