medwireNews: Living in a socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhood is significantly associated with poor retention in care among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), suggest study results published in Arthritis Research & Therapy.
Among 397 people with SLE attending a US urban health center between 2013 and 2014, 60% were retained in care based on having at least two ambulatory rheumatology visits in 2015, while 27% had two annual complement tests.
In a multivariable analysis, living in a disadvantaged neighborhood was the strongest factor predicting visit-defined SLE retention in care, with people in the most disadvantaged area deprivation index (ADI) quartile being a significant 59% less likely to remain in care than those in the least disadvantaged ADI quartile. Smoking was also a significant predictor, conferring a 37% lower likelihood of remaining in care, but race was not.
Noting that “[s]imilar disparities in HIV were reduced through a World Health Organization-endorsed Care Continuum strategy targeting ‘retention in care’,” Christie Bartels (University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, USA) and team say that their findings represent “a necessary first step toward designing interventions, policies, and building patient partnerships to eliminate lupus outcome disparities.”
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Arthritis Res Ther 2020; 22: 35