Child Opportunity Index and Emergent PICU Readmissions: A Retrospective, Cross-Sectional Study of 43 U.S. Hospitals

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To examine the association between a validated composite measure of neighborhood factors, the Child Opportunity Index (COI), and emergent PICU readmission during the year following discharge for survivors of pediatric critical illness. DESIGN: Retrospective cross-sectional study. SETTING: Forty-three U.S. children’s hospitals contributing to the Pediatric Health Information System administrative dataset. PATIENTS: Children (< 18 yr) with at least one emergent PICU admission in 2018–2019 who survived an index admission. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Of 78,839 patients, 26% resided in very low COI neighborhoods, 21% in low COI, 19% in moderate COI, 17% in high COI, and 17% in very high COI neighborhoods, and 12.6% had an emergent PICU readmission within 1 year. After adjusting for patient-level demographic and clinical factors, residence in neighborhoods with moderate, low, and very low COI was associated with increased odds of emergent 1-year PICU readmission relative to patients in very high COI neighborhoods. Lower COI levels were associated with readmission in diabetic ketoacidosis and asthma. We failed to find an association between COI and emergent PICU readmission in patients with an index PICU admission diagnosis of respiratory conditions, sepsis, or trauma. CONCLUSIONS: Children living in neighborhoods with lower child opportunity had an increased risk of emergent 1-year readmission to the PICU, particularly children with chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes. Assessing the neighborhood context to which children return following critical illness may inform community-level initiatives to foster recovery and reduce the risk of adverse outcomes.