Charu, Vivek

INTRODUCTION: Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is an important public health threat, potentially leading to chronic liver disease and liver cancer. Current guidelines recommend using the Fibrosis-4 score for initial identification of subjects at risk of future complications. We formulate a novel population screening strategy based on the Steatosis-Associated Fibrosis Estimator (SAFE) score, recently developed for MASLD risk stratification in primary care. METHODS: We interrogated the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data, 2017–20, in which a sample of subjects representative of US civilian population underwent vibration-controlled transient elastography (VCTE). The current guideline and a new, SAFE-based proposal were applied to these data to project the number of subjects to be diagnosed with liver fibrosis gauged by liver stiffness measurement (LSM), including significant (LSM ≥8 kPa) and advanced (LSM ≥12 kPa) fibrosis, as well as the number of VCTEs to be performed. RESULTS: In the survey data, 2,691 subjects, projecting to 75.8 million US adults, were found to have MASLD, of whom 11% had LSM 8–12 kPa and 6% LSM ≥12 kPa. When the current guideline was applied, 18.1 million VCTEs would be needed to diagnose 3.5 million subjects with LSM ≥8 kPa and 1.7 million subjects with LSM ≥12 kPa. In comparison, a new approach based on the SAFE score would detect 4.9 million with LSM ≥8 kPa and 2.5 million subjects with LSM ≥12 kPa (37% and 45% improvement over the current guideline, respectively), while requiring 5.0 million fewer VCTEs (28% reduction). DISCUSSION: The proposed population risk stratification approach using the SAFE score is simpler and substantially more effective, yielding more subjects with liver fibrosis while requiring less resources compared with the currently recommended algorithm.

Abstract Background Homelessness is an important public health issue with a prevalence around 4.2% in the United States. Homelessness has been associated with lack of access to healthcare services, poor quality of care, and negative health outcomes. However, there is limited data on clinical outcomes among homeless individuals with Crohn’s disease (CD). Aims In this study, we examine inpatient outcomes including endoscopy utilization, surgical treatment, and post-operative complications among homeless patients with CD. Methods The Healthcare Utilization Project (HCUP) State Inpatient Databases from New York, Arizona, Massachusetts and Florida for 2013 and 2014 were used to identify adults ≥18 years admitted with CD identified by International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes. Homeless patients were then identified, and propensity score matched using a one-to-ten greedy nearest-neighbor approach to non-homeless patients to balance the distribution of baseline covariates. Differences in outcomes including endoscopy utilization, surgical treatment and post-operative complications were reported as odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results A total of 70,457 CD hospitalizations were identified, of which 469 (0.6%) were associated with homelessness. We matched 440 homeless patients with 4,400 housed patients with CD. Homeless individuals had a higher proportion of males (p=0.002), tended to be older (p=0.035), and had more comorbidities than non-homeless individuals. There was no difference in mortality between non-homeless and homeless patients (OR 1.6, 95% CI 0.72-3.57). Endoscopy utilization was comparable between non-homeless and homeless patients with CD including gastroscopy (OR 0.71, 95% CI 0.40-1.18), colonoscopy (OR 0.80, 95% CI 0.31-1.69), and sigmoidoscopy (OR 0.37, 95% CI 0.02-1.74) [Figure 1]. Surgical treatment was also comparable, except for lower rates of bowel resection among homeless patients (OR 0.55, 95% CI: 0.29-0.93). The two groups also had similar rates of post-operative complications including pulmonary, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and infectious complications (Figure 1). Conclusions Homeless patients with CD have comparable endoscopy utilization and surgical treatment as non-homeless patients, except for lower bowel resection rates. Postoperative complications are also similar between the two groups. Future studies are needed to better understand the impact of homelessness on health outcomes and healthcare service utilization among patients with CD. Figure 1. Endoscopy utilization, surgical treatment, and post-operative complications among homeless and non-homeless individuals using 1:10 propensity matching Funding Agencies None