Division of Acute Care Surgery Associate Professor Jan Jansen, MBBS, Ph.D., recently published an article, “Impact of deprivation and comorbidity on outcomes in emergency general surgery: an epidemiological study” in the journal Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open.

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of deprivation and comorbidity on mortality, discharge destination and length of hospital stay (LOS) in patients undergoing Emergency General Surgery (EGS) in Scotland. The impact of socioeconomic deprivation and comorbidities on the outcome of patients who require emergency general surgery (EGS) admission is poorly understood.

Scotland has excellent population-level healthcare data. The National Health Service has been collecting data for over 20 years, on every patient admitted to a hospital in Scotland. The study demonstrated that increased levels of comorbidity and, to a lesser extent, socioeconomic deprivation significantly affect outcomes of EGS admissions, in a free at the point of care healthcare system. Not only is this a novel finding, it is methodologically unique from a public health perspective in that the researchers examined the entire population of EGS admissions, over a period of 20 years, instead of examining the impact on a specific diagnosis or operation over a shorter time period.

“Our research is a milestone on the road to understanding how to address healthcare disparities in underserved regions for patients in an acute care setting,” said Jansen. “I look forward to continuing to investigate the ways in which we can improve patient experiences and outcome for those who experience socioeconomic deprivation and comorbidities.”