{"title":"Area-based Deprivation Indices and Healthcare-Associated Infections: A Narrative Review of Evidence.","authors":"Jacinda C Abdul-Mutakabbir","doi":"10.1007/s11908-025-00869-9","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose of review: </strong>Since the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic started, there has been a rise in published studies using area-based deprivation indices to explore the link between neighborhood-level social determinants of health (SDoH) and susceptibility to infectious diseases. However, questions remain about how these deprivation indices were developed and how effective they are at identifying and addressing healthcare-associated infection (HAI) disparities. This review aims to clarify the origins of the most commonly used deprivation indices in HAI epidemiology research and to offer key considerations and recommendations for their use to enhance prevention strategies and advocacy efforts.</p><p><strong>Recent findings: </strong>The two most frequently used area-based deprivation indices in HAI epidemiology research are the area deprivation index and the social vulnerability index. Of interest, both indices use data from the American Community Survey disseminated by the US Census Bureau to describe area-level socioeconomic and material deprivation across various geographic areas nationwide. Researchers have combined these area-based indices with clinical and individual-level sociodemographic variables and found that higher levels of disadvantage correlate with an increased occurrence of HAIs. Despite similarities in findings when using these indices, they have distinct differences that should be considered.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>Area-level deprivation can increase an individual's risk of HAIs, and deprivation indices are tools that can quantify this relationship. Despite the availability of relevant data, there is a need to expand the existing literature using deprivation indices in HAI research. Ultimately, this exploratory research has the potential to inform prevention strategies and policy reforms aimed at reducing disparities in HAIs.</p>","PeriodicalId":48839,"journal":{"name":"Current Infectious Disease Reports","volume":"27 1","pages":"20"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12494663/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Current Infectious Disease Reports","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11908-025-00869-9","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/10/3 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"INFECTIOUS DISEASES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Purpose of review: Since the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic started, there has been a rise in published studies using area-based deprivation indices to explore the link between neighborhood-level social determinants of health (SDoH) and susceptibility to infectious diseases. However, questions remain about how these deprivation indices were developed and how effective they are at identifying and addressing healthcare-associated infection (HAI) disparities. This review aims to clarify the origins of the most commonly used deprivation indices in HAI epidemiology research and to offer key considerations and recommendations for their use to enhance prevention strategies and advocacy efforts.
Recent findings: The two most frequently used area-based deprivation indices in HAI epidemiology research are the area deprivation index and the social vulnerability index. Of interest, both indices use data from the American Community Survey disseminated by the US Census Bureau to describe area-level socioeconomic and material deprivation across various geographic areas nationwide. Researchers have combined these area-based indices with clinical and individual-level sociodemographic variables and found that higher levels of disadvantage correlate with an increased occurrence of HAIs. Despite similarities in findings when using these indices, they have distinct differences that should be considered.
Summary: Area-level deprivation can increase an individual's risk of HAIs, and deprivation indices are tools that can quantify this relationship. Despite the availability of relevant data, there is a need to expand the existing literature using deprivation indices in HAI research. Ultimately, this exploratory research has the potential to inform prevention strategies and policy reforms aimed at reducing disparities in HAIs.
期刊介绍:
This journal intends to provide clear, insightful, balanced contributions by international experts that review the most important, recently published clinical findings related to the diagnosis, treatment, management, and prevention of infectious disease.
We accomplish this aim by appointing international authorities to serve as Section Editors in key subject areas, such as HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, tropical and travel medicine, and urinary tract infections. Section Editors, in turn, select topics for which leading experts contribute comprehensive review articles that emphasize new developments and recently published papers of major importance, highlighted by annotated reference lists.