Factors associated with readmissions and outcomes of patients hospitalized for inflammatory bowel disease

Patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are hospitalized frequently. We sought to identify factors associated with risk for IBD-related readmission to the hospital.

We performed a retrospective analysis of 26,403 patients hospitalized for IBD from 2004 through 2010 using the Canadian Institute for Health Information Discharge Abstract databases. We examined whether demographic factors, comorbidity, and hospital IBD admission volume were associated with readmission rates, length of stay, bowel resection, and mortality.

Young, middle-age, and elderly adults were more than twice as likely to undergo surgery during hospitalization than pediatric patients. Elderly patients with IBD had a nearly 40-fold greater in-hospital mortality than pediatric patients (odds ratio, 37.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 5.17-270.0). In-hospital mortality was lower at hospitals with the highest volume of IBD patients than at those with low volume (odds ratio, 0.20; 95% CI, 0.05-0.97). Rates of readmission were lower for patients with ulcerative colitis than Crohn's disease (hazard ratio, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.72-0.86). The hazard ratios for readmission among young, middle-age, and elderly adults, compared with those of pediatric patients, were 0.79 (95% CI, 0.69-0.90), 0.57 (95% CI, 0.49-0.65), and 0.44 (95% CI, 0.37-0.53), respectively. Rates of readmission were lower at the highest-volume, compared with the lowest-volume, hospitals (hazard ratio, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.64-0.96).

Based on a retrospective database analysis, pediatric patients with IBD are at greater risk for readmission to the hospital than older patients. Efforts should be made to determine whether factors that contribute to this risk are preventable. The lower risk of readmission at the highest-volume hospitals may reflect optimal management during hospitalization or follow-up evaluation.