ArticleJournal of general internal medicine2026
Health-Related Social Needs and Total Healthcare Cost: A Cross-Sectional Study in a Large Integrated Health System.
Article in Journal of general internal medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Community Informal Care for Neurological Disorders: Viewpoint for India.Annals of Indian Academy of Neurology · 2026Article
- Cross-Sectional Analysis of Insurance Claims Shows Health Care Utilization and Costs Associated With Health-Related Social Needs (HRSNs) in an Urban Population.Journal of primary care & community healthArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundWhile research on health-related social needs (HRSNs) has expanded, important gaps remain in understanding associations between HRSN and healthcare cost, especially across general populations of patients with broad-ranging medical and social needs.
objectiveTo examine the association between HRSN and healthcare cost in a large, diverse, insured population.
designIn this cross-sectional study, we evaluated cost differences between patients with different HRSN levels using survey-weighted multivariable generalized linear models. We examined three alternate model specifications: one that included controls for basic demographics; another adding insurance type, race/ethnicity, and social isolation; and a third adding a diagnosis-based medical risk index called DxCG. Variables added in the latter models were assessed separately due to concern for over-correlations with HRSN.
participants10,226 adult survey respondents (23% response rate) from eight states and Washington, D.C. MAIN MEASURES: The primary exposure was patient-reported HRSN, based on survey questions asking about financial strain, food insecurity, housing instability, and transportation difficulties. HRSN was constructed as a three-level variable. The primary outcome was total direct healthcare cost. KEY
results"Moderate HRSN" was not significantly associated with cost in any model. In the model controlling for patient demographics, costs for patients with "Severe HRSN" were 1.27 (95%CI: 1.00-1.60) times those of patients with "No HRSN." In a model that adjusted for medical risk (DxCG), the relationship between HRSN and cost was not statistically significant.
conclusionsRelationships between HRSN and healthcare cost may vary by HRSN level. Our mixed findings highlight the complex relationship between medical and social risks, which often have bi-directional causal relationships. If measures of medical risk incidentally capture variation in social risk, then models controlling for medical risk may mask relationships between HRSN and cost. Further studies should investigate the extent to which HRSN may be related to cost, even when controlling for specific patient diagnoses.
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