Following several common oncologic procedures, patients with a high Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) had a higher greater likelihood of having a complication, extended length of stay, or 90-day mortality, according to a retrospective analysis published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.1
Using the SVI, a composite metric proposed by the Centers for Disease Control, investigators used 15 variables derived from United States Census tract data to characterize the resiliency of a community when faced by external pressures and stresses. The goal of the study was to determine whether SVI was associated with postoperative outcomes following resection. More specifically, investigators sought to evaluate whether social determinates of health (SDH) as assessed by SVI were associated with achieving a “textbook outcome” (TO), an established composite quality metric, following…
