An ecological study of publicly funded elective hip arthroplasties in Brazil and Scotland: do access inequalities reinforce the inverse care law?

OBJECTIVES: To compare elective hip arthroplasty rates funded by the public sector in Brazil and Scotland. DESIGN: Ecological study, 2009–13, of crude and directly standardised rates of elective primary hip arthroplasty rates (per 100,000) funded by the public sector at national and regional level for age (30 + years) and gender in Brazil and Scotland. SETTING: National Health Service Scotland and Unified Health System in Brazil. PARTICIPANTS: Over 30 s who had undergone an elective hip arthroplasty funded by the public sector. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Publicly funded standardised elective hip arthroplasty rates in Brazil and Scotland. RESULTS: Between 2009 and 2013, there was a seven-fold difference in treatment rates between Brazil and Scotland, and an eight-fold regional difference in Brazil; Brazil (7.8–8.3/100,000, increase of 0.5 per 100,000, 95% confidence interval (CI) (0.3, 0.7) from 2009/10 to 2012/13) and Scotland (from 61.1 to 57.7/100,000, decrease of 3.4 per 100,000, 95% confidence interval (1.4, 5.8) per 100,000); a two-fold difference in number of public beds per head of population (Brazil 158.3/100,000 vs. Scotland 305.1/100,000) and general medical workforce (Brazil 198.8/100,000 vs. Scotland 327.4/100,000); numbers of orthopaedic surgeons per head of population in the two countries were similar in 2013 (Brazil 5.2/100,000 vs. Scotland 4.3/100,000). CONCLUSION: Although the ‘inverse care law’ is seen in both countries, access to publicly funded hip arthroplasties in Brazil is worse than in Scotland; the distribution of specialists and higher treatment rates in Brazil is highly skewed towards wealthier areas, perpetuating historical regional inequalities.