Diagnosis and treatment patterns of Peyronie's disease among different racial, ethnic, and regional groups in the Veterans Affairs healthcare system.

Abstract

Peyronie's Disease, which is known to have racial/ethnic disparities in the general population, has never been studied in the veteran population. We compared the diagnosis and treatment rates for Peyronie's Disease among United States veterans of various racial-ethnic backgrounds at Veterans Affairs medical centers, which are equal-access systems. We queried the Veterans Affair Informatics and Computing Infrastructure to identify 17,647 Peyronie's Disease patients in the United States by ICD-9 or ICD-10 code between 2015-2020. We assessed demographic characteristics, clinical characteristics, Veterans Affairs facility information, and treatment patterns. Racial-ethnic demographics of veterans with Peyronie's Disease were 71.4% White, 15.4% Black, 5.8% Hispanic, 1.6% Native American, 0.3% Asian, and 5.4% unknown. Treatment rate was 13.6% overall, 13.6% of Whites (ref), 14.3% of Blacks (p = 0.2985), 13.5% of Hispanics (p = 0.9205), 9.1% of Asians (p = 0.3319), 16.7% of Native Americans (p = 0.1406), and 9.6% of unknown (p = 0.0041). White patients were more likely to receive injectional therapy and less likely to undergo surgery than Black patients. Peyronie's Disease patients at Veterans Affairs facilities are treated at the same rate, indicating that equal-access healthcare systems may mitigate racial-ethnic disparities. Further research is necessary to account for differences in disease severity and Veterans Affairs surgeon availability.