Racial Disparities Affect Timing of Alveolar Bone Grafting for Patients With Cleft Lip and Palate: An Analysis of the 2012 Kids’ Inpatient Database

Objective: The timing of alveolar bone graft (ABG) for patients with cleft lip and palate is critical to the success of the operation. Sociodemographic factors have been implicated in delaying surgery for other diagnoses but their impact on patients undergoing ABG is unknown. The purpose of this study is to examine the association of sociodemographic factors on the age of patients undergoing ABG. Methods: The Kids’ Inpatient Database (KID) from 2012 was used to define a cohort of patients with cleft lip and/or palate between the ages of 5 and 14. Patients were selected using ICD-9 procedure codes for repair of oronasal fistula and bone graft. Gender, race, income quartile, hospital region, and type of insurance were used as independent variables. Time to ABG was then calculated as hazard ratios (HR) of having surgery using Cox regression models with 95% confidence intervals. Results: A cohort of 395 patients was identified. Median age at ABG was 9 ± 0.15 years. On univariate analysis, Non-Hispanic Black (NHB) patients underwent surgery later than Non-Hispanic White (NHW) patients (11.13 ± 0.44 years vs 9.67 ± 0.19 years, P =.0026). Patients in the higher 2 income quartiles were more likely to have an early surgery as compared to those in the lowest quartile (9.16 ± 0.43 and 9.32 ± 0.43 years vs 10.20 ± 0.33, P =.016 and 0.043 respectively). No factor was significant on multivariate analysis. Conclusions: Patients who are NHB are associated with delayed time to ABG as compared to NHW. Conversely, those in the upper income quartile by zip code underwent surgery at an earlier age. While this study identifies demographic factors associated with delay of ABG, more research is needed to understand the direct causal effects for this delay in surgery and its implication for future growth and need for orthognathic surgery.