Racial and ethnic disparities in faricimab injections: a propensity matched cohort study
Abhimanyu S Ahuja1, Pranav Vasu2, Isabella V Wagner3
1Casey Eye Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, 515 SW Campus Dr, Portland, OR, 97239, USA.
Purpose:
To evaluate potential racial and ethnic disparities in the utilization of faricimab-svoa in the management of macular edema (ME) and neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD).
Methods:
A retrospective cohort study using the TriNetX database analyzed patients diagnosed with nAMD, type 2 diabetes with diabetic macular edema (DME), or retinal vein occlusion macular edema (RVO ME), grouped by Hispanic ethnicity, African American (AA) race, and non-Hispanic, non-AA controls. Propensity score matching was conducted for age, gender, diabetes mellitus, essential hypertension, obesity, ischemic heart disease, and atherosclerotic heart disease. The primary outcome was faricimab-svoa injection incidence at any time point after diagnosis. Odds ratios (ORs) were calculated between cohorts.
Results:
Of 49,568 AA patients (mean [SD] age at injection, 68.3 [14.4] years; 58.5% women) with a diagnosis of nAMD or ME, 55 received faricimab injection (OR 0.162; 95% CI, 0.122-0.215) compared to 338 in the control group of the same size. A similar relationship was noted for Hispanic patients (mean [SD] age at injection, 66.6 [13.5] years; 50.1% women) who received the injection (25 of 13,520) compared to non-Hispanic patients (91 of 13,520) (OR 0.273; 95% CI, 0.176-0.426).
Conclusion:
Faricimab is underutilized in the management of ME and nAMD in patients with AA race and Hispanic ethnicity compared to propensity score matched controls.