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Racial health disparities continue to disproportionately affect Black persons in the United States. Black individuals also have increased risk of worse outcomes associated with social determinants of health including socioeconomic factors such as income, education, and employment. This narrative review included studies originally spanning a period of approximately one decade (December 2009‐December 2019) from online databases and with subsequent updates though June 2020. The findings to date suggest pervasive inequities across common conditions and injuries in physical medicine and rehabilitation for this group compared to other racial/ethnic groups. We found health disparities across several domains for Black persons with stroke, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, hip/knee osteoarthritis, and fractures, as well as cardiovascular and pulmonary disease. Although more research is needed, some contributing factors include low access to rehabilitation care, fewer referrals, lower utilization rates, perceived bias, and more self‐reliance, even after adjusting for hospital characteristics, age, disease severity, and relevant socioeconomic variables. Some studies found that Black individuals were less likely to receive care that was concordant with clinical guidelines per the reported literature. Our review highlights many gaps in the literature on racial disparities that are particularly notable in cardiac, pulmonary, and critical care rehabilitation. Clinicians, researchers, and policy makers should therefore consider race and ethnicity as important factors as we strive to optimize rehabilitation care for an increasingly diverse U.S. population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Outcomes instruments are used to measure patients' subjective assessment of health status. The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Global-10 was developed to be a concise yet comprehensive instrument that provides physical and mental health scores and an estimated EuroQol-5 Dimension (EQ-5D) score. Methods: A total of 175 prospectively enrolled patients with shoulder instability completed the PROMIS Global-10, EQ-5D, American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (ASES), Single Assessment Numeric Evaluation (SANE), and Western Ontario Shoulder Instability Index. Spearman correlations between PROMIS scores and the legacy instruments were calculated. Bland–Altman analysis assessed agreement between estimated and actual EQ-5D scores. Floor and ceiling effects were recorded. Results: Correlation between actual and estimated EQ-5D was excellent-good (0.64/ p < 0.0005), but Bland–Altman agreement revealed high variability for estimated EQ-5D scores (95% CI: −0.30 to +0.34). Correlation of PROMIS physical scores was excellent-good with ASES (0.69/ p < 0.0005), good with SANE (0.43/ p <0.0005), and poor with WOSI (0.17/ p = 0.13). Correlation between PROMIS mental scores and all legacy instruments was poor. Conclusions: PROMIS Global-10 physical function scores show high correlation with ASES but poor correlation with other legacy instruments, suggesting it is an unreliable outcomes instrument in populations with shoulder instability. The PROMIS Global-10 cannot replace actual EQ-5D scores for cost-effectiveness assessment in this population. Level of evidence: Level II, study of diagnostic test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Racial health disparities continue to disproportionately affect Black persons in the United States. Black individuals also have increased risk of worse outcomes associated with social determinants of health including socioeconomic factors such as income, education, and employment. This narrative review included studies originally spanning a period of approximately one decade (December 2009-December 2019) from online databases and with subsequent updates though June 2020. The findings to date suggest pervasive inequities across common conditions and injuries in physical medicine and rehabilitation for this group compared to other racial/ethnic groups. We found health disparities across several domains for Black persons with stroke, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, hip/knee osteoarthritis, and fractures, as well as cardiovascular and pulmonary disease. Although more research is needed, some contributing factors include low access to rehabilitation care, fewer referrals, lower utilization rates, perceived bias, and more self-reliance, even after adjusting for hospital characteristics, age, disease severity, and relevant socioeconomic variables. Some studies found that Black individuals were less likely to receive care that was concordant with clinical guidelines per the reported literature. Our review highlights many gaps in the literature on racial disparities that are particularly notable in cardiac, pulmonary, and critical care rehabilitation. Clinicians, researchers, and policy makers should therefore consider race and ethnicity as important factors as we strive to optimize rehabilitation care for an increasingly diverse U.S. population., (© 2020 American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.)