Patterns of multimorbidity associated with 30-day readmission: a multinational study

Area of Science:

• Internal Medicine
• Geriatrics
• Public Health

Background:

• Multimorbidity is linked to increased healthcare use, but its impact on patient readmissions remains understudied.
• Understanding multimorbidity patterns is crucial for predicting and preventing 30-day readmissions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify key multimorbidity patterns associated with 30-day readmissions.
• To investigate the relationship between the number of chronic diseases/body systems and readmission risk.

Main Methods:

• A multinational retrospective cohort study of 126,828 inpatients with multimorbidity (≥2 chronic diseases).
• Analysis of 30-day potentially avoidable readmission (PAR) and all-cause readmission (ACR).
• Examined odds ratios for readmission based on disease count, body systems involved, and specific disease combinations.

Main Results:

• Increased number of chronic diseases or involved body systems strongly correlated with higher PAR and moderately with ACR.
• A linear increase in readmission odds was observed with each additional disease or body system.
• Specific combinations like chronic kidney disease with liver disease showed significantly higher odds for PAR.

Conclusions:

• Readmission risk is associated with both the extent (number of diseases/systems) and specific combinations of chronic conditions.
• The number of body systems involved presents a potentially valuable metric for assessing readmission risk in multimorbid patients.