Child Opportunity Index and Hospital Utilization in Children With Traumatic Brain Injury Admitted to the PICU

Abstract

IMPORTANCE: The need to understand how Community-based disparities impact morbidity and mortality in pediatric critical illness, such as traumatic brain injury. Test the hypothesis that ZIP code-based disparities in hospital utilization, including length of stay (LOS) and hospital costs, exist in a cohort of children with traumatic brain injury (TBI) admitted to a PICU using the Child Opportunity Index (COI). DESIGN: Multicenter retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) database. PATIENTS: Children 0–18 years old admitted to a PHIS hospital with a diagnosis of TBI from January 2016 to December 2020 requiring PICU care. To identify the most severely injured children, a study-specific definition of “Complicated TBI” was created based on radiology, pharmacy, and procedure codes. INTERVENTIONS: None. Main Outcomes and Measures: Using nationally normed ZIP code-level COI data, patients were categorized into COI quintiles. A low COI ZIP code has low childhood opportunity based on weighted indicators within educational, health and environmental, and social and economic domains. Population-averaged generalized estimating equation (GEE) models, adjusted for patient and clinical characteristics examined the association between COI and study outcomes, including hospital LOS and accrued hospital costs. The median age of this cohort of 8,055 children was 58 months (interquartile range [IQR], 8–145 mo). There were differences in patient demographics and rates of Complicated TBI between COI levels. The median hospital LOS was 3.0 days (IQR, 2.0–6.0 d) and in population-averaged GEE models, children living in very low COI ZIP codes were expected to have a hospital LOS 10.2% (95% CI, 4.1–16.8%; p = 0.0142) longer than children living in very high COI ZIP codes. For the 11% of children with a Complicated TBI, the relationship between COI and LOS was lost in multivariable models. COI level was not predictive of accrued hospital costs in this study. CONCLUSIONS: Children with TBI requiring PICU care living in low-opportunity ZIP codes have higher injury severity and longer hospital LOS compared with children living in higher-opportunity ZIP codes. Additional studies are needed to understand why these differences exist.

New Functional Impairment After Hospital Discharge by Traumatic Brain Injury Mechanism in Younger Than 3 Years Old Admitted to the PICU in a Single Center Retrospective Study

“…Additionally, published studies across multiple different countries, epochs, healthcare, and economic situations agree with these findings. At long-term follow-up, COI was associated with impairment, implying social determinants of health as a possible moderator of outcomes (23). Medicaid insurance, family substance abuse, and intimate partner violence may impact outcome (24, 25).…”

Association between social determinants of health and pediatric traumatic brain injury outcomes

“…Using data from sources such as the U.S. Census Bureau, Environmental Health Agency, and the Department of Education, the COI measures the quality of resources and conditions (e.g., good early childhood education centers and schools, green spaces, access to healthy food, low poverty) that allow children to develop healthily in the neighborhoods they live in ( 19 ). Many studies have found associations with COI and hospital outcomes such that lower-opportunity neighborhoods correlate with increased hospital re-admission or severity of injury ( 20 – 22 ). However, limited studies have utilized the COI within pediatric TBI ( 22 ).…”

“…Many studies have found associations with COI and hospital outcomes such that lower-opportunity neighborhoods correlate with increased hospital re-admission or severity of injury ( 20 – 22 ). However, limited studies have utilized the COI within pediatric TBI ( 22 ).…”