Recent Research from Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research Highlight Findings in Insurance (Examining the Association of Social Needs With Future Health Care Utilization In an Older Adult Population: Which Needs Are Most Important?): Insurance

2024 FEB 20 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- Data detailed on Insurance have been presented. According to news reporting out of Portland, Oregon, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “Social needs, such as social isolation and food insecurity, are important individual-level social determinants of health, especially for adults ages 65 years and older. These needs may be associated with future health care utilization, but this research area has not been studied extensively.”

Funders for this research include NIH National Cancer Institute (NCI), Kaiser Permanente’s Office of Community Health through the Social Needs Network for Evaluation and Translation (SONNET).

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, “The objective of this study was to examine the independent association of 5 individual social needs with future (1) emergency department (ED) visits and (2) hospital admissions. This observational study included 9649 Kaiser Permanente Northwest (KPNW) Medicare members who completed the Medicare Total Health Assessment (MTHA) quality improvement survey between August 17, 2020 and January 31, 2022. The 5 social needs assessed by the MTHA, defined as binary measures (yes/no), included (1) financial strain, (2) food insecurity, (3) housing instability, (4) social isolation, and (5) transportation needs. ED utilization (yes/no) and hospitalization (yes/no), the current study outcome measures, were measured in the 12 months after MTHA assessment. In multivariable analyses, 3 of the 5 social needs were significantly associated with higher ED utilization: financial strain (odds ratio [OR] = 1.40, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.11-1.76, P< 0.05), housing instability (OR = 1.43, 95% CI = 1.02-1.99, P< 0.05), and social isolation (OR = 1.19, 95% CI = 1.05-1.34, P< 0.05), and 1, financial strain, was significantly associated with hospital admissions (OR = 1.66, 95% CI = 1.23-2.23, P< 0.05). The study results identified which social needs are most strongly associated with future ED utilization and hospital admissions.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Further research is needed to better understand whether addressing social needs is associated with improved patient-level health outcomes over time.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Examining the Association of Social Needs With Future Health Care Utilization In an Older Adult Population: Which Needs Are Most Important? Population Health Management, 2023;26(6):413-419. Population Health Management can be contacted at: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc, 140 Huguenot Street, 3RD Fl, New Rochelle, NY 10801, USA. (Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. - www.liebertpub.com; Population Health Management - http://www.liebertpub.com/overview/population-health-management-formerly-disease-management/301/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting David M. Mosen, Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Portland, OR, United States. Additional authors for this research include Matthew P. Banegas, Erin M. Keast and John F. Dickerson.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1089/pop.2023.0171. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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