Medical Student Research Forum Posters

Multiple studies have been published which investigate the effects of patient demographics on elective orthopedic operations. While this research demonstrates disparities in health care delivery in other states and in single center practices, there are large administrative databases that can be used to examine patient demographics and their influence on health care delivery. We queried the State of California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) database to compare the proportions of patients undergoing surgery for scoliosis by gender, race, and ethnicity and to determine if there were underlying differences in social determinants of health as measured by the child opportunity index (COI), social deprivation index (SDI), and insurance type among these patients in order to create a foundation of knowledge for future research on health disparities in the realm of orthopaedic surgery.