Community-level socioeconomic distress is associated with nutritional status in adults with sickle cell anemia.

Sickle cell anemia (SCA) negatively impacts the ability to achieve educational and occupational goals increasing vulnerability to socioeconomic challenges. In a cross-sectional analysis of 332 SCA adults, we investigated whether the distressed community index (DCI) was associated with SCA-related complications and nutritional status. More patients with higher DCI had Medicaid insurance. A higher DCI was independently associated with tobacco use and lower body mass index, serum albumin, and vitamin D 25-OH levels after adjusting for insurance status but was not associated with SCA-related complications. Future studies investigating access to healthy foods may help improve health equity in patients with SCA.
Competing Interests: The authors disclose no relevant conflict of interest to this study.
(© 2023 The Authors. eJHaem published by British Society for Haematology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)