Multi-morbidities are Not a Driving Factor for an Increase of COPD-Related 30-Day Readmission Risk

This International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease article examines the relationships between 30-day COPD readmissions and 1) multi-morbidities (defined as having two or more diseases at the same time), 2) sex and 3) type of insurance. The authors used several accepted health care data sets to extract relevant variables across nine U.S. states. When individual patient characteristics such as age and type of insurance were taken into account, researchers identified the following:

• COPD patients with 1-3 comorbidities are significantly less likely to be hospitalized than those without comorbidities.
• Females with COPD are less likely than males with COPD to be readmitted to the hospital within 30 days.
• Risk of readmission for patients with COPD declines as income rises.
• Those with comorbidities and Medicare or Medicaid insurance are less likely to experience a readmission within 30 days than individuals with COPD who have private or other insurance types.

In addition to a discussion of their findings and potential explanations for departure from previous results, the authors include an overview of the burden of COPD readmissions and limitations to their approach.