Predictors of early rehospitalization among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease show that 1 in every 11 patients is readmitted within 30 days of discharge, a study conducted by researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston found.

The researchers, who published their study in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society, entitled, “Predictors of Early Readmission among Patients 40 to 64 Years of Age Hospitalized for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease,” aimed to determine the causes, frequency, and predictors responsible for the high rates of readmission among patients hospitalized with COPD.

Over 8,000 adult patients with COPD, aged between 40 and 64 years and commercially insured, were analyzed for this study.

Of the total of 8,263 patients included in the study, 741 (8.9%) were readmitted early. Among these, there were some common factors that could predict this early readmission. Patients more likely to be rehospitalized early were male, with a history of heart failure, lung cancer, osteoporosis, and depression. As for the providers of these patients, they had not previously prescribed statins within 12 months of the first hospitalization, nor had they prescribed a short-acting bronchodilator, oral steroid, or antibiotic at the time of first discharge from the hospital. Finally, the length of the original stay among this group of early readmitted COPD patients was shorter than 2 days or longer than 5 days, and these patients were not found to have been properly followed up with by healthcare providers after discharge.

Researchers stressed the importance of the provider and system factors, as they are modifiable risk factors of early readmission. “Guideline-adherent management and early follow up has the potential to reduce early rehospitalization among COPD patients,” Dr. Roozbeh Sharif, lead author of the study, said in a press release.