A new study has found that employment status is the leading socioeconomic indicator of hospital readmissions for patients who have suffered heart attacks, heart failure, and pneumonia.

Using 2011 and 2012 data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, researchers examined readmissions for these conditions based on nine factors that constitute what is known as the Community Need Index:  elderly poverty, single parent poverty, child poverty, lack of health insurance, minority, no high school, renting, unemployment, and limited English.  Their analysis found that only employment status and lack of high school education were statistically significant predictors of hospital readmissions for the three conditions studied, with employment status more than three times as powerful an indicator as lack of high school education.

High unemployment is typically a major problem in the communities served by private  safety-net hospitals.

Learn more about the study in this Fierce Healthcare report and see the study itself here.