Movement Is Life-Optimizing Patient Access to Total Joint Arthroplasty: Obesity Disparities

Thirty five percent of the American population is considered obese (body mass index [BMI] > 30). Obesity disproportionately affects African Americans, Hispanics, and women. Obesity is associated with postoperative complications, including wound complications, infections, and revision total joint arthroplasty (including total hip arthroplasty and total knee arthroplasty). Current BMI benchmarks (many institutions rely on a BMI of 40) selectively preclude patients from having surgery. Patients in these underserved populations can be optimized through the lens of shared decision making through the assessment of food security (eg, food deserts and food swamps), ability to afford healthy food, knowledge of social safety net and community resources to access healthy food, nutrition and weight loss referrals to programs that accept all forms of insurance, weight loss measurements as a percentage of body weight lost instead of BMI cutoffs, pharmacologic modalities, and bariatric surgery.