TUESDAY, Oct. 8, 2024 (HealthDay News) — For preschool-aged children with sickle cell disease (SCD), social determinants of health (SDOH) are associated with the risk for complications and hospitalizations, according to a study published online Oct. 7 in Blood Advances.

Hamda Khan, from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and colleagues examined whether preschool children with SCD living in poor neighborhoods with higher socioeconomic distress would experience increased acute care utilization (ACU [emergency department visits and hospitalizations]) despite receipt of disease-modifying therapy. Census tract environmental data were used to map participants’ home addresses.

The researchers found that SDOH indicators, including limited access to food, lack of vehicle, low income, and inadequate education, were associated with higher ACU in analyses adjusted for sickle genotype and disease-modifying therapies. Among children with SCD younger than 6 years, living in households with children more than one mile from a supermarket was associated with more hospitalizations and ACU (odds ratios, 1.44 and 1.37, respectively). Less ACU (odds ratio, 0.67) and fewer hospitalizations (odds ratio, 0.67) were experienced by children in households with at least one bachelor’s degree.

“The data suggest that, regardless of how much care you provide and how many new therapies are out there for patients who have chronic illnesses like SCD, unless you start addressing these deep-rooted issues, like food deserts or quality of life from the neighborhood standpoint, it’s always going to be extremely tricky to holistically provide care to our patient population,” Khan said in a statement.

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