IMPORTANCE Social determinants of health (SDOH) correlate with pediatric asthma morbidity, yet whether interventions addressing social risks are associated with asthma outcomes among children is unclear.OBJECTIVE To catalog asthma interventions by the social risks they address and synthesize their associations with asthma-related emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations among children.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Compared with population-based rates, at-risk rates (ARRs) account for underlying variations of asthma prevalence. When applied with geospatial analysis, ARRs may facilitate more accurate evaluations of the contribution of place-based social determinants of health (SDOH) to pediatric asthma morbidity. Our objectives were to calculate ARRs for pediatric asthma-related emergency department (ED) encounters and hospitalizations by census-tract in Washington, the District of Columbia (DC) and evaluate their associations with SDOH. METHODS This population-based, cross-sectional study identified children with asthma, 2 to 17 years old, living in DC, and included in the DC Pediatric Asthma Registry from January 2018 to December 2019. ED encounter and hospitalization ARRs (outcomes) were calculated for each DC census-tract. Five census-tract variables (exposures) were selected by using the Healthy People 2030 SDOH framework: educational attainment, vacant housing, violent crime, limited English proficiency, and families living in poverty. RESULTS During the study period, 4321 children had 7515 ED encounters; 1182 children had 1588 hospitalizations. ARRs varied 10-fold across census-tracts for both ED encounters (64–728 per 1000 children with asthma) and hospitalizations (20–240 per 1000 children with asthma). In adjusted analyses, decreased educational attainment was significantly associated with ARRs for ED encounters (estimate 12.1, 95% confidence interval [CI] 8.4 to 15.8, P <.001) and hospitalizations (estimate 1.2, 95% CI 0.2 to 2.2, P = .016). Violent crime was significantly associated with ARRs for ED encounters (estimate 35.3, 95% CI 10.2 to 60.4, P = .006). CONCLUSION Place-based interventions addressing SDOH may be an opportunity to reduce asthma morbidity among children with asthma.

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OBJECTIVE To describe associations between the Child Opportunity Index (COI) and multisystem inflammatory syndrome of childhood (MIS-C) diagnosis among hospitalized children. METHODS We used a retrospective case control study design to examine children ≤21 years hospitalized at a single, tertiary care children’s hospital between March 2020 and June 2021. Our study population included children diagnosed with MIS-C (n = 111) and a control group of children hospitalized for MIS-C evaluation who had an alternative diagnosis (n = 61). Census tract COI was the exposure variable, determined using the patient’s home address mapped to the census tract. Our outcome measure was MIS-C diagnosis. Odds ratios measured associations between COI and MIS-C diagnosis. RESULTS Our study population included 111 children diagnosed with MIS-C and 61 children evaluated but ruled out for MIS-C. The distribution of census tract overall COI differed significantly between children diagnosed with MIS-C compared with children with an alternate diagnosis (P = .03). Children residing in census tracts with very low to low overall COI (2.82, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.29–6.17) and very low to low health/environment COI (4.69, 95% CI 2.21–9.97) had significantly higher odds of being diagnosed with MIS-C compared with children living in moderate and high to very high COI census tracts, respectively. CONCLUSION Census tract child opportunity is associated with MIS-C diagnosis among hospitalized children suggesting an important contribution of place-based determinants in the development of MIS-C.