Mapping disparities in pediatric critical care: DEI highlights

Racial/Ethnic Minority Children with Cancer Experience Higher Mortality on Admission to the ICU in the United States* This retrospective study by Laurens et al used data from Virtual Pediatric Systems database (23,128 PICU admissions, 12,232 unique patients with oncologic diagnoses admitted between 2009 and 2018). The authors concluded that cancer patients of African American race or Hispanic ethnicity experienced higher risk of mortality in the PICU when compared to their Caucasian counterparts after controlling for illness severity using mixed effects regression modeling. Minority outcomes varied by region and rates of readmission were higher in all minority groups relative to the Caucasian patients. The authors speculated that African American and Hispanic children with cancer may present to the PICU at a more advanced stage of illness and proposed further research to address this question.

Reference

Leimanis Laurens M, Snyder K, Davis AT, Fitzgerald RK, Hackbarth R, Rajasekaran S. Racial/Ethnic Minority Children With Cancer Experience Higher Mortality on Admission to the ICU in the United States. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2020 Oct;21(10):859-868. doi: 10.1097/PCC.0000000000002375. PMID: 33017127. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33017127/ [pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]