Disparities in Care: The Role of Race on the Utilization of Physical Restraints in the Emergency Setting

Race-based bias in health care occurs at organizational, structural, and clinical levels and impacts emergency medical care. Limited literature exists on the role of race on patient restraint in the emergency setting. This study sought to examine the role of race in physical restraint in an emergency department (ED) at a major academic medical center.

Retrospective chart analysis was performed, querying all adult ED visits over a 2-year period (2016-2018) at Massachusetts General Hospital. The associations between race and restraint and selected covariates (sex, insurance, age, diagnosis, homelessness, violence) were analyzed.

Of the 195,092 unique ED visits by 120,469 individuals over the selected period, 2,658 (1.4%) involved application of a physical restraint by health care providers. There was a significant effect of race on restraint (p < 0.0001). The risk ratio (RR) for Asian patients compared to white patients was 0.71 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.55 to 0.92, p = 0.009). The RR for Black patients compared to white patients was 1.22 (95% CI = 1.05 to 1.40, p = 0.007). Visits with patients having characteristics of male sex, public or no insurance, younger age, diagnoses pertaining to substance use, diagnoses pertaining to psychotic or bipolar disorders, current homelessness, and a history of violence were more likely to result in physical restraint.

There was a significant effect of race on restraint that remained when controlling for sex, insurance, age, diagnosis, homelessness, and history of violence, all of which additionally conferred independent effects on risk. These results warrant a careful examination of current practices and potential biases in utilization of restraint in emergency settings.