Are There Differences in the Sociodemographic Characteristics of Total Hip Arthroplasty Patients in Public and Private Health Care?

OBJECTIVES: Total hip arthroplasty is one of the most common and most successful surgical procedures performed. The aim of the study is to investigate the sociodemographic characteristics of patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty in public and private health care in Hungary in 2023.

METHODS: Patients were selected by simple convenience sampling technique at the Department of Orthopedics, Clinical Centre of the University of Pécs and at the Da Vinci Private Clinic in Pécs (Hungary) in 2023. Patients in both health care sectors completed a complex questionnaire on sociodemographic characteristics (e.g. sex, age, residence, occupation, marital status).

RESULTS: The research involved 205 patients, 103 (42 males, 61 females; mean age 68,79 years) from the public health care and 102 (54 males, 48 females; mean age 65,52 years) from the private health care. The majority of patients were >65 years old (65.37%) and aged 46-64 years (32.20%). The proportion of patients living in villages, cities and county seats was approximately equal (29.60%, 32.17%, 33.80%), while only 4.43% of patients lived in the capital. 60% of patients were married, 20% were widowed and 11% were divorced. Half of the patients (52.20%) had secondary, 32.20% had tertiary and 15.61% had primary education. The majority of the patients were retired (63.90%), the rest were intellectual workers (12.68%), light physical (9.76%) or heavy physical workers (8.29%). In the public health sector, the proportion of patients > 65 years old (p=0.024), with secondary education (p=0.004), single persons (p=0.032), pensioners (p=0.017), and disabled, unemployed persons (p=0.031) were significantly higher. In private health care, there were significantly higher proportions of those with tertiary education (p<0.001), intellectual workers (p=0.001) and light physical workers (p=0.004).

CONCLUSIONS: Patients in the two health sectors significantly differ in the socioeconomic characteristics in terms of age, education, marital status and occupation.