Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 1, 2025
Detecting Behavioral Deficits in Rats After Traumatic Brain Injury
Published on: January 30, 2018
Readmission Following Hospitalization for Traumatic Brain Injury: A Nationwide Study
Dayton J Kelly1, Dylan Thibault, Derrick Tam
1Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Sudbury, Canada (Mr Kelly and Dr Crispo); Departments of Neurology/Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics/and Neurology Translational Center of Excellence for Neuroepidemiology and Neurological Outcomes Research, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia (Messrs Thibault and Tam and Dr Willis); Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia (Messrs Thibault and Tam and Dr Willis); Collaboration for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada (Ms Liu and Drs Cragg and Crispo); and International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada (Ms Liu and Dr Cragg).
Objective:
To determine whether sociodemographic and clinical factors were associated with nonelective readmission within 30 days of hospitalization for traumatic brain injury (TBI). Secondary objectives were to examine the effects of TBI severity on readmission and characterize primary reasons for readmission.
Setting:
Hospitalized patients in the United States, using the 2014 Nationwide Readmission Database.
Participants:
All patients hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of TBI between January 1, 2014, and November 30, 2014. We excluded patients (1) with a missing or invalid length of stay or admission date, (2) who were nonresidents, and 3) who died during their index hospitalization.
Design:
Observational study; cohort study.
Main Measures:
Survey weighting was used to compute national estimates of TBI hospitalization and nonelective 30-day readmission. Associations between sociodemographic and clinical factors with readmission were assessed using unconditional logistic regression with and without adjustment for suspected confounders.
Results:
There were 135 542 individuals who were hospitalized for TBI; 8.9% of patients were readmitted within 30 days of discharge. Age (strongest association for 65-74 years vs 18-24 years: adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 2.57; 95% CI: 2.02-3.27), documentation of a fall (AOR, 1.24; 95% CI: 1.13-1.35), and intentional self-injury (AOR, 3.13; 95% CI: 1.88-5.21) at the index admission were positively associated with readmission. Conversely, history of a motor vehicle (AOR, 0.69; 95% CI: 0.62-0.78) or cycling (AOR, 0.56; 95% CI: 0.40-0.77) accident was negatively associated with readmission. Females were also less likely to be readmitted following hospitalization for a TBI (AOR, 0.87; 95% CI: 0.82-0.92).
Conclusions:
Many sociodemographic and clinical factors were found to be associated with acute readmission following hospitalizations for TBI. Future studies are needed to determine the extent to which readmissions following TBI hospitalizations are preventable.
