Social Capital and Surgery Access Among Medicare Beneficiaries

To compare the rates of unplanned procedures for access-sensitive surgical conditions among beneficiaries living in census tracts of varying social capital levels.

Access-sensitive surgical conditions are conditions ideally screened for and treated in an elective setting. However, when left untreated, these conditions may result in unplanned (ie, urgent or emergent) surgery. It is possible that social capital-the resources available to individuals through their membership in a social network-may impact the likelihood of a planned procedure occurring.

Medicare beneficiaries who underwent 1 of 3 access-sensitive procedures (abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, colectomy for cancer, and ventral hernia repair) between 2016 and 2020 were stratified by their census tract level of social capital, the exposure variable. Outcomes included rate of unplanned surgery, readmission, 30-day mortality, and complications which were risk-adjusted with a logistic regression model that accounted for patient age, sex, race, comorbidities, and area deprivation.

A total of 975,048 beneficiaries were included [mean (SD) patient age, 76 (7.6) years; 443,190 were male (45.45%)]. Compared with patients from census tracts in the highest overall social capital decile, those from census tracts with the least social capital were, on average, more likely to undergo unplanned surgery [40.67% vs 35.28%, odds ratio (OR)=1.26 P <0.001]. In addition, beneficiaries in these communities were also more likely to experience postoperative complications (24.99% vs 22.90%, OR=1.12 P <0.001), but there was no significant difference in rates of readmission or mortality. When evaluating only elective procedures, the differences between the lowest and highest social capital decile groups reduced significantly for complications (12.77% vs 12.11%, OR=1.06 P =0.04), the differences in mortality rates collapsed, and differences in readmission rates remained insignificant.

These data suggest that Medicare beneficiaries who live in communities with lower social capital are more likely to undergo unplanned surgery for access-sensitive conditions. Efforts to improve social capital in these communities may be one strategy for reducing the rate of unplanned operations.