Social Determinants of Health May Help Predict Sepsis Readmission

Researchers from the University of California, San Diego found that factors such as lack of insurance, economic instability and poor transportation to obtain care were associated with a 30-day readmission.

Including social determinants of health in sepsis readmission models could improve their predictive ability, a new study shows. They found that including various social determinants of health improved the model's ability to predict which sepsis patients are at risk of an unplanned 30-day readmission. "Our results highlight the importance of [social determinants of health] in identifying which patients may benefit from additional resources around the time of discharge, or post-discharge, to prevent 30-day readmissions," wrote the researchers. "The central finding of this multicenter longitudinal cohort study is that certain [social determinants of health] are strongly associated with unplanned 30-day sepsis readmissions and that the inclusion of such information into a predictive model for readmissions can significantly improve predictive ability and model actionability," the study team said. "Future studies are required to prospectively validate these findings and further explore the relationship between [social determinants of health], readmissions and patient-centered outcomes," said the researchers.