The Child Opportunity Index and asthma morbidity among children younger than 5 years old in Washington, DC

Abstract

Place-based social determinants of health are associated with pediatric asthma morbidity. However, there is little evidence on how social determinants of health correlate to the disproportionately high rates of asthma morbidity experienced by children <5 years old. This study sought to evaluate census tract associations between the Child Opportunity Index ±COI) and at-risk rates (ARRs) for pediatric asthma-related emergency department (ED) encounters and hospitalizations in Washington, DC. This was a cross-sectional study of children <5 years old with physician-diagnosed asthma included in the DC Asthma Registry between January 2018 and December 2019. Census tract COI score (1-100) and its 3 domains (social/economic, health/environmental, and educational) were the exposures (source: www.diversitydatakids.org). ED and hospitalization ARRs (outcomes) were created by dividing counts of ED encounters and hospitalizations by populations with asthma for each census tract and adjusted for population-level demographic (age, sex, insurance), clinical (asthma severity), and community (violent crime and limited English proficiency) covariates. Within a study population of 3806 children with a mean age of 2.4± 1.4 years, 2132 (56%) had 5852 ED encounters, and 821 (22%) had 1418 hospitalizations. Greater census tract overall COI, social/economic COI, and educational COI were associated with fewer ED ARRs. There were no associations between the health/environmental COI and ED ARRs or between the COI and hospitalization ARRs. Improving community-level social, economic, and educational opportunity within specific census tracts may reduce ED ARRs in this population.