Racial, Ethnic, and Sex Differences in Social Risks and Social Needs Concordance Among Veterans

Do self-reported social risks capture need for support overall, and does risk-need concordance vary across intersecting racial and ethnic identities and sex?In this cross-sectional study of 6596 primary care patients representing 937 003 veterans after weighting, Black male veterans had a significantly higher odds of reporting social needs without accompanying social risks in several domains. No differences among racial, ethnic, and sex subgroups were found for reporting social risks without social needs, although these occurred at a higher rate overall.These findings suggest that overall agreement between self-reported social risks and need for support may be modest at best and that social risk questions may underdetect the need for support more often among Black male veterans.

Corresponding Author: Leslie R. M. Hausmann, PhD, VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, University Dr (151C), Pittsburgh, PA 15240-1001 (leslie.hausmann@va.gov).

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