source: Sickle Cell Disease Association of America

year: 2022

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a genetic blood disorder that affects approximately 100,000 Black, African American, and Hispanic-Americans in the United States. The disease is progressive and causes life-threatening complications that require comprehensive healthcare to manage. The first objective of this analysis was to identify barriers to SCD healthcare and to assess their impact on a state level. The second purpose was to evaluate the current research on Community Health Worker (CHW) interventions, and estimate the economic impact that CHW programs could have on SCD patients’ overall healthcare costs. Community health workers (CHWs) are trained community members who can support SCD patients, reduce barriers to care, foster connections with the healthcare system, and provide health education.

After a thorough review of the literature, we determined that the key healthcare access barriers for SCD patients include provider shortages, economic factors, ability to consistently access specialist and preventative care, and healthcare disparities. Though these barriers to care occur nationally, we found that SCD patients are more likely to experience difficulty accessing healthcare in the southern states of Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, Alabama, Texas, and Florida.

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