The Effect of County-Level Food Insecurity on Baseline Patient-Reported Outcome Measures in Patients Undergoing Carpal Tunnel Release

Purpose: Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are widely used in hand surgery to assess symptom severity prior to surgical intervention; however, little is known about how food insecurity, an important social determinant of health, influences these scores. We aimed to measure the correlation between county-level food insecurity and baseline PROMs in a cohort of patients undergoing carpal tunnel release (CTR) for idiopathic carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). Methods: Baseline PROMs were prospectively collected in 114 patients with electrodiagnostic study, ultrasound, or CTS-6 confirmed CTS treated with CTR at a single tertiary referral center. Feeding America's Map the Meal Gap Dataset was used to identify county-level food-insecurity rate, average meal cost, and percent eligible for Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. Correlations between food-insecurity parameters and PROMs were assessed using correlation coefficients; bivariate analyses of continuous explanatory variables were performed using linear regression. Results: Mean age was 61.6 ± 12.7 years. A total of 57.9% were women, and 93.9% were White. In total, 14.9% and 19.3% of our cohort reside in Massachusetts counties falling within the upper quartile and upper half of food-insecurity rates, respectively. No significant correlations were found between food-insecurity variables and Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) scores. Younger age was associated with worse Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire-Symptom Severity Scale scores and PROMIS Pain Interference scores. Conclusions: We found no evidence that patients with food insecurity present with greater symptom severity at time of CTR. Type of study/level of evidence: Prognostic IIb.