(0508) Assessing the Impact of Social Vulnerability on Follow-Up Adherence After Facial Trauma

Introduction: This study evaluates the association between the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) — a metric developed by the National Institute of Health to gauge community resilience to environmental stressors —and follow-up adherence after facial trauma. The research aims to understand how social vulnerabilities impact patient engagement in post-trauma care.

Methods: A retrospective case-control was performed on patients with facial fractures at a county hospital from July 2022 to March 2023. Cases were identified as patients that did not adhere to follow-up within three months of discharge, while controls were patients that did. SVI percentile rankings on a scale from 0 – 1.0 were compared between groups. Demographic and clinical factors were collected as potential confounders. Univariable and multivariable adjusted regression models were used to independently assess the relationship between SVI and follow-up adherence.

Results: A total of 781 facial trauma patients were included with 527 (67.5%) cases and 254 (32.5%) controls. Compared to the controls, patients who did not attend follow-up had a 0.041 higher SVI (95% Confidence Interval: 0.001 – 0.081, p = 0.043). Correlations were also observed between follow-up adherence and age (p = 0.0121), marital status (p < 0.001), race (p < 0.001), mechanism of injury (p < 0.001), and payor type (p = 0.003), which could be potential confounders. Nonetheless, after adjusting for these variables in the multivariate analysis, SVI remained an independent factor associated with missed follow-up.

Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate an inverse correlation between SVI and follow-up adherence in facial trauma patients, even after adjusting for various demographic and confounding factors.