Nonlinear Relationship Between Vital Signs and Hospitalization/Emergency Department Visits Among Older Home...

Previous studies have focused on identifying risk factors for older adults receiving home healthcare services without considering vital signs. This may provide important information on deteriorating health conditions that may lead to hospitalization and/or emergency department (ED) visits. Thus, it is important to understand the relationship between vital signs and hospitalization and/or ED visits and critical vital sign points for mitigating the higher risks of hospitalization and/or ED visits. This secondary data analysis uses cross-sectional data from a large, urban home healthcare organization (n = 61,615). A generalized additive model was used to understand the nonlinear relationship between each vital sign and hospitalization and/or ED visits through three unadjusted and adjusted models, and to identify a critical vital sign point related to a higher risk of hospitalization and/or ED visits. A significant nonlinear relationship (effective degree of freedom >2.0) was found between systolic, diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, hospitalization, and/or ED visits. The critical inflection point for systolic blood pressure was 120.36 (SE 3.625, p < .001), diastolic blood pressure was 72.00 (SE 3.108, p < .001), and heart rate was 83.24 (SE 1.994, p = .052). Among all vital signs, the risk of hospitalization and/or ED visits sharply increased when an older adult's heart rate surpassed 83.24 bpm. Our findings reveal that vital signs may serve as a critical indicator of a patient's clinical condition, especially related to hospitalization and/or ED visit. Clinicians need to be cognizant of these critical thresholds for each vital sign and monitor any deviations from baseline to preempt adverse outcomes.