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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Life-Course Epidemiology and Social Inequalities in Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1448803

Racial Disparities in Acute Care Utilization Among Individuals with Myasthenia Gravis

Provisionally accepted
Cynthia Qi Cynthia Qi 1Pushpa Narayanaswami Pushpa Narayanaswami 2Ashley E. L. Anderson Ashley E. L. Anderson 3Deborah Gelinas Deborah Gelinas 1Yuebing Li Yuebing Li 4Jeffrey T Guptill Jeffrey T Guptill 1Dakshinamoorthy Amirthaganesan Dakshinamoorthy Amirthaganesan 5Charlotte Ward Charlotte Ward 6*Rupesh Panchal Rupesh Panchal 7Amit Goyal Amit Goyal 8Glenn Phillips Glenn Phillips 1
  • 1 Argenx US Inc., Boston, Massachusetts, United States
  • 2 Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
  • 3 Department of Neurology, Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, Ohio, United States
  • 4 Neuromuscular Center, Neurological Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, United States
  • 5 ZS India, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
  • 6 ZS Associates, Evanston, Illinois, United States
  • 7 ZS Associates, Thousand Oaks, United States
  • 8 ZS Associates, Princeton, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In myasthenia gravis (MG), evidence on the impact of social determinants of health on disparities in disease burden and healthcare resource utilization is limited. This study aimed to investigate the independent association between race/ethnicity and acute care utilization during the 2 years post-diagnosis among patients with MG.Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted among adults (≥18 years) with newly diagnosed MG in the United States using Optum's de-identified Market Clarity Data from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2019. Multivariable regression models were used to assess the association between acute care utilization and race/ethnicity, insurance, exacerbation at index, and other covariates.Results: A total of 7,058 patients met the study inclusion criteria, of whom 57% (n = 4,052) identified as Caucasian, 6% (n = 445) African American, 3% (n = 235) Hispanic, 1% (n = 94) Asian, and 32% (n = 2,232) with missing race/ethnicity information. Compared with patients identifying as Caucasian, those identifying as African American had 37% higher odds of having an emergency department visit in year 1, and those identifying as Hispanic had 70% increase in odds of having a hospitalization event in year 2 post-diagnosis. Among other covariates, Medicaid usage, exacerbation at index, and number of outpatient visits were significantly associated with acute care utilization. Conclusion: Racial disparities significantly impacted acute care utilization in the first 2 years post-MG diagnosis. Future studies should aim to examine specific factors that may contribute to disparities such as barriers to healthcare access, greater severity of MG symptoms, and poorly controlled disease.

    Keywords: Myasthenia Gravis, Racial Disparities, social inequalities, social determinants of health, Healthcare resource utilization, Acute care, myasthenic exacerbation, race (Min.5-Max. 8)

    Received: 13 Jun 2024; Accepted: 13 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Qi, Narayanaswami, Anderson, Gelinas, Li, Guptill, Amirthaganesan, Ward, Panchal, Goyal and Phillips. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Charlotte Ward, ZS Associates, Evanston, IL 60201, Illinois, United States

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