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. 2021 Sep 17;16(9):e0257608.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0257608. eCollection 2021.

Racial disparities in the SOFA score among patients hospitalized with COVID-19

Benjamin Tolchin  1 , Carol Oladele  2 , Deron Galusha  2 , Nitu Kashyap  3 , Mary Showstark  4 , Jennifer Bonito  5 , Michelle C Salazar  6 , Jennifer L Herbst  7 , Steve Martino  8 , Nancy Kim  9 , Katherine A Nash  10 , Max Jordan Nguemeni Tiako  2 , Shireen Roy  11 , Rebeca Vergara Greeno  2 , Karen Jubanyik  5
Affiliations

Racial disparities in the SOFA score among patients hospitalized with COVID-19

Benjamin Tolchin et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score predicts probability of in-hospital mortality. Many crisis standards of care suggest the use of SOFA scores to allocate medical resources during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Research question: Are SOFA scores elevated among Non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic patients hospitalized with COVID-19, compared to Non-Hispanic White patients?

Study design and methods: Retrospective cohort study conducted in Yale New Haven Health System, including 5 hospitals with total of 2681 beds. Study population drawn from consecutive patients aged ≥18 admitted with COVID-19 from March 29th to August 1st, 2020. Patients excluded from the analysis if not their first admission with COVID-19, if they did not have SOFA score recorded within 24 hours of admission, if race and ethnicity data were not Non-Hispanic Black, Non-Hispanic White, or Hispanic, or if they had other missing data. The primary outcome was SOFA score, with peak score within 24 hours of admission dichotomized as <6 or ≥6.

Results: Of 2982 patients admitted with COVID-19, 2320 met inclusion criteria and were analyzed, of whom 1058 (45.6%) were Non-Hispanic White, 645 (27.8%) were Hispanic, and 617 (26.6%) were Non-Hispanic Black. Median age was 65.0 and 1226 (52.8%) were female. In univariate logistic screen and in full multivariate model, Non-Hispanic Black patients but not Hispanic patients had greater odds of an elevated SOFA score ≥6 when compared to Non-Hispanic White patients (OR 1.49, 95%CI 1.11-1.99).

Interpretation: Given current unequal patterns in social determinants of health, US crisis standards of care utilizing the SOFA score to allocate medical resources would be more likely to deny these resources to Non-Hispanic Black patients.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Construction of study cohort.
Abbreviations: BMI: Body Mass Index; COVID-19: Coronavirus Disease 2019; SOFA: Sequential Organ Failure Assessment.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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