News: High social risk associated with ED trips and hospitalizations, survey shows
Social determinants of health and exposure to social risk (e.g., financial strain, housing instability, food insecurity) generally may be linked to poor clinical outcomes, as well as a higher association with emergency department and/or hospitalization visits, a new study suggests.
“Social risk and acute health care utilization among insured adults,” published in JAMA Network Open, sought to examine “the association between exposure to social risk factors and emergency department visits and hospitalization of insured adults.”
The authors studied a cohort of 9,785 respondents across eight different regional markets in the United States (Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Mid-Atlantic states, Northern California, Northwest, Southern California, and Washington).
To conduct the survey, the researchers first contacted the respondents to establish a baseline for their social risk exposure. In the first round of interviews, respondents were asked to rate how difficult it was to acquire basic human needs in certain socioeconomic categories (e.g., “From a scale to ‘not hard at all’ to ‘very hard,’ how difficult is it for you to pay rent on time?”).
On a median follow up time of 3.5 years, the authors of the survey then asked respondents to provide any information regarding emergency department visits and hospitalizations. The researchers extrapolated their results into general observations, finding:
- When examining individual social risk factors, exposure to financial strain, housing instability, and food insecurity were independently associated with increased risks of ED visits
- Exposure to multiple social risks concurrently was also associated with increased risk of ED visits
- Social risk was not significantly associated with hospitalizations
Editor’s note: To read the JAMA Network Open article, click here.