Home care first admissions are different from re-admissions

Most previous papers on home care client populations, by not distinguishing between first and subsequent admissions, may create the impression that the characteristics of these two groups of patients are similar. When analysing these two groups from this data set separately, however, they show differences demographically, in length of stay, and in use of some services. Although, in many instances, these differences are not large, they are statistically significant, thus implying that type of admission i.e., first or subsequent, should be used routinely as a descriptive or explanatory variable in any analysis.