Background: The Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) is a composite scale formulated by the Centers for Disease Control and is geocoded as a percentile ranking at the census tract level. SVI is potentially applicable to assess risk and target populations that are likely to present emergently for disease that could have been treated electively and target local disparities. We applied the SVI to compare cholecystectomy patients presenting emergently versus electively. Methods: We identified patients who had undergone cholecystectomy at our academic medical center over a 6-month period. We abstracted patient demographics, chronic symptom duration, and diagnosis from the medical record. Patient addresses were geocoded to identify their census tract of residence and estimated SVI. Results: Two hundred and fifty five patients met inclusion criteria. Most patients (n ¼ 185, 72.5%) had surgery in the emergent setting. Emergent patients lived in areas of greater social vulnerability compared with elective patients (median SVI 75th versus 64th percentile, P < 0.001). On multivariable analysis adjusting for chronicity of symptoms and patient proximity to the hospital, having high SVI (>70th percentile) was associated with higher odds of undergoing an emergent versus an elective procedure (OR 2.05, P ¼ 0.04). Conclusions: The SVI has potential utility for examining health care disparities, performing comparably with a more complex model including individual risk factors. Because it is a composite measure geocoded at the census tract level for all communities in the United States, it has potential for targeting relatively discrete geographic areas for intervention. Being a geocoded measure also offers opportunity for linking with other data sets using geographic information systems.
Background: Several composite measures of neighborhood social vulnerability exist and are used in the health disparity literature. This study assesses the performance of the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) compared with three similar measures used in the surgical literature: Area Deprivation Index (ADI), Community Needs Index (CNI), and Distressed Communities Index (DCI). There are advantages of the SVI over these other scales, and we hypothesize that it performs equivalently.
Methods:We identified all cholecystectomies at a single, urban, academic hospital over a 9month period. Cases were considered emergency if the patient presented and underwent surgery during that admission. We geocoded patient's addresses and assigned estimated SVI, ADI, CNI, and DCI. Cutoffs for high versus low social vulnerability were generated using Youden's index, and the scales were compared using multivariable modeling.Results: Overall, 366 patients met inclusion criteria, and the majority (n ¼ 266, 73%) had surgery in the emergency setting. On multivariable modeling, patients with high social vulnerability were more likely to undergo emergency surgery compared with those with low social vulnerability in accordance with all four scales: SVI (OR 3.24, P < 0.001), ADI (OR 3.2, P < 0.001), CNI (OR 1.90, P ¼ 0.04), and DCI (OR 2.01, P ¼ 0.03). The scales all had comparable predictive value.
Conclusions:The SVI performs similarly to other indices of neighborhood vulnerability in demonstrating disparities between emergency and elective surgery and is readily available and updated. Because the SVI has multiple subcategories in addition to the overall measure, it can be used to stratify by modifiable factors such as housing or transportation to inform interventions.
This study investigated breast and colorectal cancer screening among 196 low-income women being treated for psychiatric illnesses. Main outcome measures included breast self-examination (BSE), clinical breast examination (CBE), mammography, digital rectal examination (DRE), and fecal occult blood test (FOBT). Results indicated that 49% and 66% of women 40 years of age or older had obtained mammograms and CBEs, respectively, in the preceding year. Forty-four per cent of women 20 years of age or older reported monthly BSE. Forty-six per cent and 35% of women 50 years of age or older reported having digital rectal exams (DRE) or fecal occult blood tests (FOBT), respectively, in the preceding year. Multivariate analyses showed that physician recommendation of screening was the strongest predictor of having obtained a mammogram, CBE, DRE or FOBT in the preceding year. Physician recommendation and self-confidence in performing BSE were the strongest predictors of monthly BSE. These results highlight the importance of physician recommendation of adherence to screening guidelines for breast and colorectal cancer. Because psychiatrists frequently treat psychiatric patients on a regular basis, they are in a unique position to encourage cancer screening and to monitor compliance with their recommendations.
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