Association of Early and Late Hospital Readmissions with a Novel Housing-Based Socioeconomic Measure

Abstract

Background While socioeconomic status has been linked to hospital readmissions for several conditions, reliable measures of individual socioeconomic status are often not available. HOUSES, a new measure of individual socioeconomic status based upon objective public data about one's housing unit, is inversely associated with overall hospitalization rate but it has not been studied with respect to readmissions. Purpose To determine if patients in the lowest HOUSES quartile are more likely to be readmitted within 30 days (short-term) and 180 days (long-term). Methods A retrospective cohort study of 11 993 patients having 21 633 admissions was conducted using generalized linear mixed-effects models. Results HOUSES quartile did not show any significant association with early readmission. However, when compared to the lowest HOUSES quartile, the second quartile (OR = 0.90, 95%CI 0.83-0.98) and the third quartile (OR = 0.91, 95%CI 0.83-0.99) were associated with lower odds of late readmission while the highest quartile (OR = 0.91, 95%CI 0.82-1.01) was not statistically different. Conclusion HOUSES was associated with late readmission, but not early readmission. This may be because early readmissions are influenced by medical conditions and hospital care while late readmissions are influenced by ambulatory care and home-based factors. Since HOUSES relies on public county assessor data, it is generally available and may be used to focus interventions on those at highest risk for late readmission.

Characteristics and Percentage of 30 Days All Cause Hospital Readmissions in Mongolia

“…This finding aligns with data from the Medicaid Nationwide Readmissions Database (NRD) in the U.S. in 2016-2020, indicating that individuals aged 45-64 had the highest percentages of readmissions (21.4 and 19.7 per 100 index admissions) [34]. A study involving approximately 12,000 people across various departments, including surgery, trauma, and internal medicine, reported an average age of 63.6 among those readmitted within 30 days [35], which closely mirrors our study However, a study by Jing Cao et al in China in 2021 revealed that majority of people readmitted due to pulmonary tuberculosis were over 65 years old. Additionally, according to Leppin et al's meta-analysis, the readmission rate tends to be higher in individuals older than 65 [24,25].…”