How Social Determinants of Health Are Linked to Outcomes in Multiple Myeloma

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Greater area deprivation linked to worse progression-free and overall survival

by
Greg Laub, Director, Video, MedPage Today
December 29, 2024

A study presented at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting revealed that multiple myeloma patients with higher socioeconomic deprivation, as measured by the Area Deprivation Index (ADI), experienced poorer outcomes, emphasizing the need for targeted interventions.

In this exclusive MedPage Today video, Catherine Forbes, PharmD, of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York, discusses the influence of social determinants of health on multiple myeloma outcomes and highlights strategies to improve care for disadvantaged patients.

Following is a transcript of her remarks:

At ASH, we presented a study on the social determinants of health and the outcomes in multiple myeloma. So we looked at ADI, or area deprivation index, which includes employment, education, housing conditions, and it takes into consideration all of those factors. Patients with higher scores are more deprived as compared to patients who have lower numbers, and they usually have a better socioeconomic status.

So from this, we compared our outcomes in myeloma. We were able to see that patients who had higher ADI, or had higher deprivation, did have poor outcomes compared to those with lower ADI. We also looked at income, so lower income versus higher income based on U.S. census data, and found similar results that, again, patients with lower income, unfortunately, did perform worse than patients with higher income.

So the takeaway message for our clinicians is that we really need to be identifying things that we can do to help these patients who maybe have some of those factors that are making them perform worse as far as overall survival and progression-free survival and find ways that we can help them to eventually come up to other comparator groups where they’re having those better outcomes.