Medical Student Virginia Mason Medical Center, University of Washington School of Medicine
Disclosure(s):
Patricia Lipson, BS: No financial relationships to disclose
Introduction: Socioeconomic disparities are linked to various surgical outcomes. Multiple tools and indices have been used to assess these disparities, each evaluating different socioeconomic domains. This study aims to systematically review these tools to understand how socioeconomic disparities are measured in surgical care and explore the potential for standardization.
Methods: A systematic literature search of PubMed and Embase was performed using terms related to surgery and socioeconomic disparity measurement tools. Two independent reviewers screened titles and abstracts for relevance. Studies utilizing tools or indices to measure socioeconomic disparities in surgical patients were included. Abstract-only studies, letters to the editor, and those without full texts were excluded. The review followed PRISMA guidelines.
Results: Seventy-five articles published between 2016 and 2024 met the inclusion criteria. The most commonly used indices were the Area Deprivation Index (ADI) (24 studies, 32%), Distressed Communities Index (DCI) (17 studies, 22.7%), Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) (9 studies, 12%), and Social Deprivation Index (SDI) (8 studies, 10.7%). The review covered 19 different indices across 14 surgical specialties, with general, orthopedic, cardiothoracic, and cardiovascular surgery being the most represented.
Conclusion : This is the first systematic review assessing tools and indices used to measure socioeconomic disparities in surgery. The ADI and DCI were the most frequently used indices, but many others were also represented. These findings highlight the need for a standardized approach to measuring socioeconomic disparities in surgery to ensure consistency and accuracy in comparisons across specialties.