Table 3.

Association between presentation during the COVID-19 pandemic and PROMIS scores stratified by Area Deprivation Index after adjusting for age, smoking status, and orthopaedic subspecialty

Parameter	ß coefficient	95% CI	p value
High Area Deprivation Index
Physical Function
Cohort (during COVID-19)	-0.23	-0.80 to 0.33	0.42
Pain Interference
Cohort (during COVID-19)	0.18	-0.31 to 0.67	0.47
Depression
Cohort (during COVID-19)	0.42	-0.26 to 1.09	0.23
Anxiety
Cohort (during COVID-19)	0.84	0.16 to 1.52	0.02
Low Area Deprivation Index
Physical Function
Cohort (during COVID-19)	-0.03	-0.51 to 0.45	0.90
Pain Interference
Cohort (during COVID-19)	-0.19	-0.58 to 0.21	0.36
Depression
Cohort (during COVID-19)	0.004	-0.48 to 0.48	0.99
Anxiety
Cohort (during COVID-19)	0.35	-0.15 to 0.85	0.17

The ß coefficient reflects the estimated difference in PROMIS score that would be expected for patients who presented during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with patients who presented before the COVID-19 pandemic, after adjusting for confounding variables. For example, patients from areas with a high Area Deprivation Index who presented to an orthopaedic provider during the COVID-19 pandemic would be expected to have a PROMIS Anxiety score of 0.84 points higher than that of patients who presented before the COVID-19 pandemic. Although this result is statistically significant (p < 0.05), a ß coefficient of 0.84 is less than the minimum clinically important difference value of 4 points, and therefore the result is interpreted as not clinically important. The other correlations evaluated in this table were neither statistically significant nor clinically important. High Area Deprivation Index denotes the most socially deprived quartile, whereas low Area Deprivation Index denotes the least socially deprived quartile. PROMIS = Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System.