Two factors that can increase the length of hospital stay of patients with dementia
Date
2022-12-02Author
Duah-Owusu White, Mary
Vassallo, Michael
Kelly, Fiona
Nyman, Samuel
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Duah-Owusu White, M., Vassallo, M., Kelly, F. and Nyman, S. (2022) ‘Two factors that can increase the length of hospital stay of patients with dementia’, Revista Española de Geriatría y Gerontología, 57(6), pp. 298–302. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.regg.2022.10.004.
Abstract
Objectives
Patients with dementia are at greater risk of a long hospital stay and this is associated with adverse outcomes. The aim of this service evaluation was to identify variables most predictive of increased length of hospital stay amongst patients with dementia.
Methods/Design
We conducted a retrospective analysis on a cross-sectional hospital dataset for the period January–December 2016. Excluding length of stay less than 24h and readmissions, the sample comprised of 1133 patients who had a dementia diagnosis on record.
Results
The highest incidence rate ratio for length of stay in the dementia sample was: (a) discharge to a care home (IRR: 2.443, 95% CI 1.778–3.357), (b) falls without harm (IRR: 2.486, 95% CI 2.029–3.045).
Conclusions
Based on this dataset, we conclude that improvements made to falls prevention strategies in hospitals and discharge planning procedures can help to reduce the length of stay for patients with dementia.