Research Projects

Safer Scoring

Socioeconomic status and short-term postoperative outcome: analysis of the SNAP2 cohort

People living in more deprived areas often have worse health outcomes after surgery, but most previous research has focused only on deaths and may not give the full picture. This study looked at a wide range of surgical patients from across the UK to understand how socioeconomic deprivation affects short-term recovery and survival after surgery.

The research included nearly 19,000 adults who had various types of non-heart surgery in 240 hospitals. Researchers used the national Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), which ranks areas from most deprived to least deprived, to explore how social disadvantage might influence surgical outcomes.

The study found that patients from more deprived areas tended to be younger but had more existing health problems and were generally more unwell before surgery. Around 13.7% of patients experienced serious complications within 7 days of their operation, and 1.4% died within 30 days. Those from the most deprived areas were significantly more likely to experience complications or death than those from the least deprived areas.

However, when the researchers accounted for patients’ overall health and pre-existing conditions before surgery, the link between deprivation and poor outcomes disappeared. This suggests that worse outcomes may be due to poorer health before surgery rather than differences in surgical care itself.

Lead Investigators

Ramani Moonesinghe