Social Deprivation Index Affects Time to MRI after knee injury in pediatric patients and is predicted by patient demographics.

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to characterize the association between the timing of MRI ordering and completion for pediatric knee injuries and Social Deprivation Index (SDI), which is a comprehensive, validated, county-level, measure of socioeconomic variation in health outcomes based upon combining geography, income, education, employment, housing, household characteristics, and access to transportation.

METHODS: A retrospective chart review was completed of patients 21 years old and younger from our institution with a history of knee sports injury (ligamentous/soft tissue injury, structural abnormality, instability, inflammation) evaluated with MRI between 5/26/2017 and 12/28/2020. Patients were from three states and attended to by physicians associated with an urban academic institution. Patients were assigned SDI scores based on their ZIP code. Excluded from the study were patients with a non-knee related diagnosis (hip, foot, or ankle), patients from ZIP codes with unknown SDI, and non-sports medicine diagnoses (tumor, infection, fracture).

RESULTS: In a multivariate regression analysis of 355 patients, increased SDI was independently associated with increased time from clinic visit to MRI order ( p  = 0.044) and from clinic visit to MRI completion ( p  = 0.047). Each 10-point increase in SDI (0-100) was associated with a delay of 7.2 days on average. SDI itself was found to be associated with a patient's race ( p  < 0.001), ethnicity ( p  < 0.001), and insurance category ( p  < 0.001).

CONCLUSION: Increased SDI is independently associated with longer time from clinic visit to knee MRI order and longer time from clinic visit to knee MRI completion in our pediatric population. Recognizing potential barriers to orthopedic care can help create the change necessary to provide the best possible care for all individual patients.