Study finds black children more likely to have appendectomy complications

Hospital costs were also higher for black children, according to a peer-reviewed study published Thursday in the journal Pediatrics, which is maintained by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

“Our study demonstrates the economic impact on our health care system of persistent disparities in pediatric surgical outcomes,” the authors wrote. The study looked at more than 100,000 children who had appendectomy between 2001 and 2018. Of those children, slightly more than 10% were non-Hispanic black; The remainder were non-Hispanic whites.

The researchers noted that rates of surgical complications were always higher for black children when adjusting for factors such as differences in income, even though the overall rate fell for black and white children.

“Surgical complications were consistently higher for black children than for white children, with no evidence of narrowing of the racial disparity gap over time,” they wrote. This was true whether the appendix had ruptured when the child was admitted.

Black children’s hospital costs totaled $518.7 million during the study period, more than 11% of which stemmed from the high rupture rate, the researchers found. Between 2015 and 2016 alone, about $12 million in health care spending could have been avoided if black and white children had comparable rates of appendix rupture, also known as perforation.

“The additional risk of perforation in black patients was associated with a significant financial burden to the health care system because of the persistently high costs incurred by black children,” the article said.

Racial disparities have arisen even during the COVID-19 pandemic, where more minorities have been adversely affected by the virus.