Investigators have found that the race and ethnicity of a patient may not impact the likelihood that rheumatologists will prescribe them biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) for their rheumatoid arthritis, according to a new study published by Simard et al in ACR Open Rheumatology. In the new study, investigators created four identical hypothetical case vignettes—three of which featured decision-making ambiguity and one of which favored the use of biologic DMARDs—and sent all four of them to 159 rheumatologists in a survey. For each of the four vignettes, race and ethnicity of the patient was randomly assigned. The investigators found that for the vignettes that had decision-making ambiguity, although Black and Hispanic patients were selected to begin taking biologic DMARDs at higher rates than White patients, the differences were statistically insignificant. Further, for the vignettes that favored the use of biologic DMARDs, the rheumatologists recommended that patients initiate biologic DMARDs at similar rates—regardless of their race and ethnicity. The investigators concluded that although the survey results were promising, they acknowledged that an awareness bias regarding the impact of structural racism on health outcomes may have influenced the rheumatologists’ responses.
June 30, 2023