Association of Area‐Level Heat and Social Vulnerability With Recurrent Hospitalizations Among Individuals With Rheumatic Conditions
Authors' conclusion
Individuals with rheumatic conditions living in areas with high versus low social and heat vulnerability had significantly greater odds of recurrent hospitalizations.
Study context
- Population
- Individuals ≥18 years with a rheumatic condition receiving rheumatology care within 3 years of April 2021, Massachusetts (mean age 61.9 ± 15.7 years; 70% female)
- Participants
- 14,401 individuals8,251 hospitalizations
- Exposure
- Highest vs lowest neighborhood Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) and Heat Vulnerability Index (HVI) areas
- Outcome
- 1-3 and ≥4 hospitalizations (reference = 0)
- Follow-up
- 2 years post index date
Methodological detailsmultihospital centralized clinical data repository, multilevel, multinomial logistic regression, adjusted for age, gender, race/ethnicity, insurance and comorbidities
- Multihospital centralized clinical data repository
- Multilevel, multinomial logistic regression
- Adjusted for age, gender, race/ethnicity, insurance and comorbidities
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
≥4 hospitalizations
Adjusted odds ratio (95% CI)
Highest SVIvs Lowest SVI
1.84(1.43–2.36)
Highest HVIvs Lowest HVI
1.64(1.17–2.31)
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Distribution of hospitalizations · 2 years post index date
- 0 hospitalizations
- 11,649 (81%)
- 1-3 hospitalizations
- 2,063 (14%)
- ≥4 hospitalizations
- 689 (5%)
Original publication
Association of Area‐Level Heat and Social Vulnerability With Recurrent Hospitalizations Among Individuals With Rheumatic Conditions. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). Published 12 October 2022. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →