A large-scale study by researchers from Maastricht UMC+ and Amsterdam UMC demonstrates that lower socioeconomic status (SES) of patients admitted to Dutch intensive care units contributes to worse survival. Over half a million Dutch ICU admissions from the NICE registry (2014–2022) were linked to SES data from Statistics Netherlands (CBS), leading to two recent scientific publications which have led to wide national media coverage.

Key Findings
ICU patients from households with the lowest SES have 1.6 times higher odds of dying in the hospital compared to patients from the middle SES quintile. Mortality ranged from 16.8% in the lowest SES group to 7.9% in the highest. This disparity persists even after adjusting for age, sex, illness severity at admission, and chronic comorbidities.

The study also revealed substantial regional variation: ICUs in Limburg and Southwestern Netherlands treated patients with the lowest SES on average, while ICUs in Central Netherlands treated patients with the highest average SES. At the patient level, lower SES patients were more frequently admitted for medical conditions and presented with more chronic conditions. In contrast, higher SES patients were more often admitted after planned surgeries and were more frequently treated at academic hospitals, whereas lower SES patients were more commonly treated in peripheral hospitals.

Societal impact
The results, first published by Maastricht UMC + and Amsterdam UMC were, amongst others, covered by De Telegraaf, NRC, and skipr. In addition, Bas van Bussel did a live interview on the NPO Radio 1 news and BNNVARA de Rode Draad, and together with Jip de Kok was interviewed by L1. See also in the Media Moments section

Publications:

• Socioeconomic differences in ICU patients across regions, characteristics, and hospital types - BMC Health Services Research: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-026-15093-x
• The association between SES and hospital mortality and its interaction with comorbidities - Critical Care Medicine: https://doi.org/10.1097/ccm.0000000000007271