Heart transplantation in patients from socioeconomically distressed communities

Abstract

Studies examining heart transplantation disparities have focused on individual factors such as race or insurance status. We characterized the impact of a composite community socioeconomic disadvantage index on heart transplantation outcomes. From the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR), we identified 49,340 primary, isolated adult heart transplant candidates and 32,494 recipients (2005-2020). Zip code-level socioeconomic disadvantage was characterized usingtheDistressed Community Index (DCI: 0-most prosperous, 100-most distressed) based on education, poverty, unemployment, housing vacancies, median income, and business growth. Patients from distressed communities (DCI≥80) were compared to all others. Patients from distressed communities were more often non-white, less educated, and had public insurance (all p<0.01). Distressed patients were more likely to require ventricular assist devices at listing (29.4 vs27.1%) and before transplant (44.8 vs42.0%, both p<0.001), and they underwent transplants at lower-volume centers (23 vs26 cases/year, p<0.01). Distressed patients had higher 1-year waitlist mortality or deterioration (12.3% [95% confidence interval (CI) 11.6-13.0] vs10.9% [95% CI 10.5-11.3]) and inferior 5-year survival (75.3% [95% CI 74.0-76.5] vs79.5% [95% CI 79.0-80.0]) (both p<0.001). After adjustment, living in a distressed community was independently associated with an increased risk of waitlist mortality or deterioration hazard ratio(HR 1.10, 95% CI 1.02-1.18) and post-transplant mortality (HR 1.13, 95% CI 1.06-1.20). Patients from socioeconomically distressed communities have worse waitlist and post-transplant mortality. These findings should not be used to limit access to heart transplantation, but rather highlight the need for further studies to elucidate mechanisms underlying the impact of community-level socioeconomic disparity.