Research Objectives:
Osteoporosis has become a significant public health problem in recent years, especially with the growth of the elderly population. Osteoporotic fractures exact a terrible toll on the population with respect to morbidity, cost, and to a lesser extent mortality. These effects can lead to psychological problems, social consequences, functional limitations, and poor quality of life. Thus, knowledge regarding osteoporotic fractures is needed to evaluate the impact of osteoporotic fractures on society, to identify high-risk populations, and to help policymakers to allocate resources accordingly. This study aims to investigate the influence factors of hospital readmissions among osteoporotic fractures patients in Taiwan, and the study results are expected to increase our understanding of the magnitude of the elderly population suffering from osteoporotic fractures and to urge policymakers to develop effective national prevention strategies.
Study Design:
Using Taiwan¡¦s National Health Insurance database, we identified elderly patients with a hospitalization for osteoporotic fractures between 2001 and 2007. We divided readmissions into different groups (14-day, 30-day, 180-day and over 180-day) and evaluated each group¡¦s demographic, hospital characteristics, and Charlson Comorbidity Index. The claims data are also used to calculate the health services utilization of osteoporotic fractures among those elderly patients with or without readmission of osteoporotic fractures. The data analyses were carried out by Chi-square test, t test, multiple linear regression and multivariate logistic regression.
Population Studied:
Patients aged 50 or older with osteoporotic fractures were identified based on the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM).
Principle Findings:
Among 5483 osteoporotic fractures patients, 6.9% of them were readmitted within 14 days, 34.7% were readmitted within 30 days and 13.9% were readmitted within 180 days. The medical resource utilizations were significantly higher in patients with readmissions than those without readmission. Age and Charlson Comorbidity Index were significantly affected the probabilities of readmissions.
Conclusion:
From the perspective of health policy, the issue of osteoporotic fractures will become increasingly important in the future. This national study will help raise awareness of osteoporotic fractures and hopefully motivate public health policy makers to develop effective national prevention strategies against osteoporosis to prevent osteoporotic fractures.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0907112-171821 |
| Date | 07 September 2012 |
| Creators | Li, Min-Wei |
| Contributors | Ying-Ying Lo, Shyh-Jer Chen, Ying-Chun Li |
| Publisher | NSYSU |
| Source Sets | NSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Language | Cholon |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0907112-171821 |
| Rights | user_define, Copyright information available at source archive |
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