Abstract
The authors investigated 48 deaths (7% death rate) among 690 adolescents and young adults with spina bifida in South Carolina during 2000-2010. The authors used Medicaid and other administrative data and a retrospective cohort design that included people with spina bifida identified using ICD-9 codes. Cox regression models with time-dependent and time-invariant covariates, and Kaplan-Meier survival curves were constructed. The authors found that 21.4% of the study group had a skin ulcer during the study period and individuals with skin ulcers had significantly higher mortality than those without ulcers (P < .0001). People who had their first skin ulcer during adolescence had higher mortality than those who had the first skin ulcer during young adulthood (P = .0002; hazard ratio = 10.70, 95% confidence interval for hazard ratio: 3.01, 38.00) and those without skin ulcers, controlling for other covariates. This study showed that age at which individuals first had a skin ulcer was associated with mortality.
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