Examining community-level social vulnerability and emergency department use for people living with sickle cell disease in Michigan.

Abstract

This study examined associations between emergency department (ED) visits and social vulnerability index (SVI) among Michigan's population with sickle cell disease (SCD) using data from the Michigan Sickle Cell Data Collection program (n=3658 in 2018). SVI was higher among census tracts where people with SCD resided (mean SVI=0.67; SD=0.27) compared to census tracts without SCD residents (mean SVI=0.39; SD=0.25; p<.001). For children with SCD, for every 0.1 increase in SVI score, the number of ED visits increased by 6% (IRR=1.061; SE=0.03; p=.038). Future research should investigate the association between SVI and ED use, at the community and household levels, to elucidate strategies to reduce ED use among children with SCD.