Community‐level socioeconomic distress is associated with nutritional status in adults with sickle cell anemia

• Published in: EJHaem Vol. 4; no. 2; pp. 432 - 436
• Main Authors: Ally, Syeda Akila, Han, Jin, Sun, Ryan, Molokie, Robert E., Gordeuk, Victor R., Lash, James P., Saraf, Santosh L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.05.2023; John Wiley and Sons Inc; Wiley
• Subjects: African Americans; Anemia; Blood; Body mass index; distressed community index; Emergency medical care; Hemoglobin; Medicaid; Medicare; Mortality; Neighborhoods; nutrition; Nutritional status; Outpatient care facilities; Poverty; Recruitment; Short Report; Short Reports; Sickle cell anemia; Sickle cell disease; socioeconomic; Stroke; Tobacco; Vitamin D; United States > US; socioeconomic; nutrition; distressed community index; sickle cell anemia
• ISSN: 2688-6146; 2688-6146
• DOI: 10.1002/jha2.661

Sickle cell anemia (SCA) negatively impacts the ability to achieve educational and occupational goals increasing vulnerability to socioeconomic challenges. In a cross‐sectional analysis of 332 SCA adults, we investigated whether the distressed community index (DCI) was associated with SCA‐related complications and nutritional status. More patients with higher DCI had Medicaid insurance. A higher DCI was independently associated with tobacco use and lower body mass index, serum albumin, and vitamin D 25‐OH levels after adjusting for insurance status but was not associated with SCA‐related complications. Future studies investigating access to healthy foods may help improve health equity in patients with SCA.