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. 2025 Feb 26:13:1521545.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1521545. eCollection 2025.

Social vulnerability and asthma-related emergency medical services in Illinois

Sarah Dee Geiger  1 , M Omar Khaium  1 , Evan M Gustafson  1   2 , Marcus Shapiro  1 , Sarah Keeley  3 , Cassandra Johnson  1 , Nancy Amerson  4 , Daniel Lee  5 , Lynn B Gerald  6 , Arlene Keddie  7
Affiliations

Social vulnerability and asthma-related emergency medical services in Illinois

Sarah Dee Geiger et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Introduction: This ecologic study explores the relationship between the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) and probable asthma-related emergency medical service (EMS) rates before and during the COVID-19 pandemic at the county level in Illinois.

Methods: The number of asthma-related EMS visits was obtained in all 102 counties for adults aged 18 years or more, and for 82 of these counties for children aged less than 18 from 2018 to 2021. They were converted into rates and examined in relation to SVI rankings. Pearson's correlation coefficients and negative binomial regression were used to examine associations, adjusting for the level of rurality.

Results: The rate of asthma-related EMS visits increased in adults from 23.1 to 28.9 per 1,000 between 2018 and 2021 but decreased in children from 5.9 to 5 per 1,000. Every 1% increase in the overall SVI was associated with a nearly two-fold increase in the rate of EMS visits in adults (pre-COVID-19: IRR = 1.94, p < 0.01; during-COVID: IRR = 1.90, p < 0.01) and an even greater increase in children (pre-COVID-19: IRR = 2.61, p < 0.01; during-COVID: IRR = 2.92, p < 0.01) Consistent associations were found for the SVI themes of socioeconomic status, housing type, and transportation across age groups and time periods.

Discussion: During the pandemic, all four themes of SVI were associated with the asthma EMS rate in children. This study has shown that the same factors that lead to community vulnerability in a disaster align with a greater need for on-site asthma emergency treatment.

Keywords: COVID-19; asthma; emergency visits; social vulnerability index; vulnerability.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Breakdown of key themes into social factors of overall vulnerability.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Map of Illinois showing the distribution of the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) for 2018 and 2020 (from the left).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Map of Illinois showing the distribution of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) for asthma in Illinois for 2018 and 2020 (from the left).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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