The authors examined race-specific rates for hospitalization for prostatectomy from 1980 to1994 using the National Hospital Discharge Survey (a representative sample of discharges from short-stay, non-Federal hospitals in the United States).

The annual number of discharges for prostatectomy decreased by 31.9% for whites and by 18.3% for blacks. The age-standardized rate ratio of prostatectomy performed on benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) patients for whites compared with blacks was 1.24 (95% confidence interval 1.05 to 1.44) for the 1984-1987 period, and the rate ratio was 0.98 (95% confidence interval 0.77 to 1.19) for the 1992-1994 period. This pattern indicated that the race difference for this procedure had declined over time. For whites, the mean length of hospitalization for whites decreased from 11.8 in 1980 to 5.0 days in 1994; for blacks, the mean length decreased from 15.6 days in 1980 to 7.4 days in 1994. Again, the race difference in length of hospitalization declined over time.

The authors note that, in addition to the decline in the race difference in discharge rates, the overall risk of undergoing surgical treatment for BPH halved in the past 15 years. They suggest that this pattern is unlikely to represent a decline in risk of BPH, but rather it represents an increase in opportunity to be treated with alternative therapies. It is also possible that the disease has become less severe over time. The decline in racial differences in length of stay, according to the authors, "suggests that the factors that influenced the [overall] decline in length of stay may have [also] worked to negate racial differences." Presumably they are suggesting that equalizing access to care and/or utilization of alternative therapies have resulted in both improved care overall and decreased racial differences in care.