Clinical Scorecard: Social Risk Factors in Hospitalized Patients With Disabilities: Prevalence and Patterns
At a Glance
Category
Detail
Condition
Co-occurrence of self-reported disability and social risk factors among hospitalized adults
Key Mechanisms
The study characterized housing instability, food insecurity, and transportation barriers among hospitalized patients with and without disability.
Target Population
Adults hospitalized on general medicine services who were English-proficient, oriented to person, place, and time, and able to complete a verbal survey
Care Setting
General medicine inpatient services at a large urban academic medical center
Key Highlights
Among 335 analyzed patients, 222 (66.3%) reported at least one disability and 104 (31.0%) reported at least one social risk factor.
Social risk factors were reported by 37.8% of patients with disability versus 17.7% of patients without disability (p ≤ .001).
Among patients with disability, transportation barriers were reported by 25.2%, food insecurity by 20.8%, and housing instability by 13.1%.
Transportation barriers were more frequent among patients with communication, visual, and dressing/bathing-related disabilities than among patients without those disability types.
The authors describe the findings as preliminary and note that the sample lacked adequate power to support generalizability.
Guideline-Based Recommendations
Diagnosis
The study assessed self-reported hearing, visual, mobility, cognitive, learning, dressing/bathing, and communication impairments, as well as assistive-device needs and assistance with daily needs.
The study assessed housing instability, food insecurity, and transportation barriers using a questionnaire derived from the CMS Accountable Health Communities Health-Related Social Needs screening tool.
Management
Monitoring & Follow-up
Risks
In this cohort, 37.8% of patients with disability and 17.7% of patients without disability reported at least one social risk factor (p ≤ .001).
The authors describe the findings as preliminary and state that the sample lacked adequate power to support generalizability.
Patient & Prescribing Data
The final cohort included 335 adults hospitalized on general medicine services; 222 reported at least one disability. Participation required English proficiency and ability to complete a verbal survey.
No medication or treatment regimen was evaluated. The study characterized disability and social risk factors; the discussion cites prior evidence on multidisciplinary discharge-support programs.
