The impact of diabetes on multiple avoidable admissions: a cross-sectional study

Preadmission morbidity and healthcare utilization among older adults with potentially avoidable hospitalizations: a Danish case-control study

PURPOSE

Examine preadmission diagnoses, medication use, and preadmission healthcare utilization among older adults prior to first potentially avoidable hospitalizations.

METHODS

A nationwide population-based case-control study using Danish healthcare data. All Danish adults aged ≥ 65 years who had a first potentially avoidable hospitalization from January 1995 through March 2019 (n = 725,939) were defined as cases, and 1:1 age- and sex-matched general population controls (n = 725,939). Preadmission morbidity and healthcare utilization were assessed based on a complete hospital diagnosis history within 10 years prior, and all medication use and healthcare contacts 1 year prior. Using log-binomial regression, we calculated adjusted prevalence ratios (PR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI).

RESULTS

Included cases and controls had a median age of 78 years and 59% were female. The burden of preadmission morbidity was higher among cases than controls. The strongest associations were observed for preadmission chronic lung disease (PR 3.8, CI 3.7-3.8), alcohol-related disease (PR 3.1, CI 3.0-3.2), chronic kidney disease (PR 2.4, CI 2.4-2.5), psychiatric disease (PR 2.2, CI 2.2-2.3), heart failure (PR 2.2, CI 2.2-2.3), and previous hospital contacts with infections (PR 2.2, CI 2.2-2.3). A high and accelerating number of healthcare contacts was observed during the months preceding the potentially avoidable hospitalization (having over 5 GP contacts 1 month prior, PR 3.0, CI 3.0-3.0).

CONCLUSION

A high number of healthcare contacts and preadmission morbidity and medication use, especially chronic lung, heart, and kidney disease, alcohol-related or psychiatric disease including dementia, and previous infections are strongly associated with potentially avoidable hospitalizations.

Changing inequity in health service utilization and financial burden among patients with hypertension in China: evidence from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), 2011-2018

BACKGROUND

China initiated a health system reform in 2009 to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2020. While the effectiveness of health-system reforms has been studied, equity in health-service utilization and financial burden remains underexplored. This study evaluated whether the health system reform has improved the equity in utilization and financial burden of health services among patients with hypertension in China.

METHODS

We obtained data from four waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) conducted between 2011 and 2018. The main outcome variables were outpatient and inpatient service utilization rates and catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) for patients with hypertension. The Standardized Concentration Index (CI) was used to measure the changing equity in health service utilization and affordability.

RESULTS

Outpatient service utilization was relatively equal among patients with varying socioeconomic statuses (SESs) (CI: 0.041 in 2011 and 0.064 in 2018). Inpatient service utilization inequity improved from CI 0.144 in 2011 to CI 0.066 in 2018. CHE incidence increased from 15.6% in 2011 to 24.2% in 2018. CI for CHE declined from -0.069 in 2011 to -0.012 in 2015 but increased to -0.063 in 2018.

CONCLUSIONS

Health insurance expansion and poverty alleviation policies promoted equity in inpatient service utilization for hypertensive patients. However, the financial burden for the poor requires further attention through reimbursement policy adjustments for outpatient services in primary care settings.

Trends in avoidable hospitalizations in a developed City in eastern China: 2015 to 2018

Objective

This study aimed to measure the avoidable hospitalization rate and the treatment cost per hospitalization in large cities of eastern China.

Methods

In this study, the hospital discharge data of all inpatients in the city from 2015 to 2018 were collected. In accordance with the organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) definition of avoidable hospitalizations, five diseases were selected as the measurement objects, including hypertension, diabetes, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), as well as congestive heart failure (CHF). We described the avoidable hospitalization rate, average cost and length of stay for avoidable hospitalization cases. Linear probability model and log-linear model were used to control the basic characteristics and disease severity of patients, and to measure the trend of the avoidable hospitalization rate and expenditure of avoidable hospitalizations.

Results

From 2015 to 2018, the absolute number of avoidable hospitalizations in the city increased while fluctuating, which reached 125,372 in 2018. Among the five avoidable hospitalizations, the number of hospitalizations for diabetes increased continuously in the 4-year period. Congestive heart failure showed the most significant increase over the four years. Avoidable hospitalizations in the city have remained at a high level, while avoidable hospitalizations of hypertension and asthma fell to levels lower than those in 2015 in 2017 and 2018 after rising in 2016. The cost per hospitalization and length of stay per hospitalization decreased.

Conclusions

Avoidable hospitalizations in the city remain at a high level, and more effective policies should be formulated to guide patients with avoidable hospitalizations, so as to more effectively exploit outpatient services and continuously improve the quality of primary health care services.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-022-08275-w.

Health insurance status and its determinants among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in a tertiary teaching hospital in Malaysia

Introduction

Even in a country with a tax-based healthcare financing system, health insurance can play an important role, especially in the management of chronic diseases with high disease and economic burden such as Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM). The insurance coverage among T2DM patients in Malaysia is currently unclear. The aim of this study was to determine the insurance status of T2DM patients in public and private healthcare facilities in Malaysia, and the association between this status and patients’ sociodemographic and economic factors.

Methods

A cross-sectional study among T2DM patients seeking inpatient or outpatient treatment at a public tertiary hospital (Hospital Canselor Tuanku Muhriz) and a private tertiary hospital (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Specialist Centre) in Kuala Lumpur between August 2019 and March 2020. Patients were identified via convenience sampling using a self-administered questionnaire. Data collection focused on identifying insurance status as the dependent factor while the independent factors were the patients’ sociodemographic characteristics and economic factors.

Results

Of 400 T2DM patients, 313 responded (response rate, 78.3%) and 76.0% were uninsured. About 69.6% of the respondents had low monthly incomes of <RM5000. Two-thirds of participants (59.1%) spent RM100–500 for outpatient visits whilst 58.5% spent <RM100 on medicines per month (RM1 = USD0.244). Patients who visited a private facility had five times more likely to have insurance than patients who visited a public facility. Participants aged 18–49 years with higher education levels were 4.8 times more likely to be insured than participants aged ≥50 years with low education levels (2 times).

Conclusions

The majority of T2DM patients were uninsured. The main factors determining health insurance status were public facilities, age of ≥ 50 years, low education level, unemployment, and monthly expenditure on medicines.

Disparities in diabetes-related avoidable hospitalization among diabetes patients with disability using a nationwide cohort study

Diabetes is an ambulatory care sensitive condition that quality of care can prevent complications development and hospitalization needs. However, diabetes patients with disability face greater challenges with receiving quality diabetes care than those without disabilities. This study examined diabetes-related avoidable hospitalizations (DRAH) focusing on the association with disability. We used nationally representative health insurance cohort data from 2002 to 2013. The study population is people who were newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. We measured the cumulated number of DRAH using the Prevention Quality Indicators (PQIs). The variables of interest were disability severity and type. We performed a recurrent events analysis using Cox proportional hazard regression model. Among 49,410 type 2 diabetes patients, 12,231 (24.8%) experienced DRAHs at least once during the follow-up period. Among the total population, 5924 (12.0%) diabetes patients were registered as disabled. The findings report that disability severity was significantly associated with higher risks for DRAH, where severely disabled diabetes patients showed the highest hazard ratio of 2.24 (95% CI 1.80-2.79). Among three DRAH indicators, severely disabled diabetes patients showed increased risks for long-term (AHR 2.21, 95% CI 1.89-2.60) and uncontrolled (AHR 2.28, 95% CI 1.80-2.88) DRAH. In addition, intellectual (AHR 5.52, 95% CI 3.78-8.05) and mental (AHR 3.97, 95% CI 2.29-6.89) disability showed higher risks than other types of disability. In conclusion, diabetes patients with disability are at higher risk for DRAH compared to those without disabilities, and those with intellectual and mental disabilities were more likely to experience DRAH compared to those with physical or other types of disability. These findings call for action to find the more appropriate interventions to improve targeted diabetes primary care for patients with disability. Further research is needed to better understand determinants of increasing risks of DRAH.

Osteoarthritis and risk of hospitalization for ambulatory care-sensitive conditions: a general population-based cohort study

OBJECTIVE

To determine the association between OA and risk of hospitalization for ambulatory care-sensitive conditions (HACSCs).

METHODS

We included all individuals aged 40-85 years who resided in Skåne, Sweden on 31 December 2005 with at least one healthcare consultation during 1998-2005 (n = 515 256). We identified those with a main diagnosis of OA between 1 January 1998 and 31 December 2016. People were followed from 1 January 2006 until an HACSC, death, relocation outside Skåne, or 31 December 2016 (whichever occurred first). OA status was treated as a time-varying covariate (those diagnosed before 1 January 2006 considered as exposed for whole study period). We assessed relative [hazard ratios (HRs) using Cox proportional hazard model] and absolute (hazard difference using additive hazard model) effects of OA on HACSCs adjusted for potential confounders.

RESULTS

Crude incidence rates of HACSCs were 239 (95% CI: 235, 242) and 151 (150, 152) per 10 000 person-years among OA and non-OA persons, respectively. The OA persons had an increased risk of HACSCs [HR (95% CI) 1.11 (1.09, 1.13)] and its subcategories of medical conditions except chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [HR (95% CI) 0.86 (0.81, 0.90)]. There were 20 (95% CI: 16, 24) more HACSCs per 10 000 person-years in OA compared with non-OA persons. While HRs for knee and hip OA were generally comparable, only knee OA was associated with increased risk of hospitalization for diabetes.

CONCLUSION

OA is associated with an increased risk of HACSCs, highlighting the urgent need to improve outpatient care for OA patients.

The Endocrine Hospitalist: Enhancing the Quality of Diabetes Care

The endocrine hospitalist and inpatient diabetes management team increases access to endocrinology consultations and improves glycemic control and quality metrics such as length of stay and hospital readmission. Enhanced glycemic care is needed in both academic and community hospital settings. Endocrine fellowship programs should implement endocrine hospitalist rotations with emphasis on training endocrine fellows to deliver fast-paced inpatient endocrine care. Entrepreneurship, innovation, and a "start-up" culture within the field of Endocrinology should be encouraged and supported by healthcare systems.

Landscapes on Prevention Quality Indicators: A Spatial Analysis of Diabetes Preventable Hospitalizations in Portugal (2016-2017)

Preventable hospitalizations due to complications of diabetes mellitus (DM), represented by the related prevention quality indicators (PQI), are ambulatory care-sensitive conditions that can be prevented and controlled through effective primary health care (PHC) treatment. It is important to reduce mortality and promote the quality of life to diabetic patients in regions with higher hospitalization rates. The study aims to analyze the results of the DM age-sex-adjusted PQI, by groups of health centers (ACES), distributed in the Portuguese territory. The most representative PQI at a national level were identified, and the trends were mapped and analyzed. Also, it presents the ACES with the highest age-adjusted rates of avoidable hospitalizations for DM. The absolute number of preventable hospitalizations for all DM complications in Portugal has decreased by 20%, thus passing from the rate of 79 in 2016 to 65.2/100,000 inhabitants in 2017. Despite the improvement in results for PQI 03, 20 of 48 ACES that were above the national 2017 median rate in 2016, achieved better results the following year, and for the overall preventable diabetes hospitalizations (PQI 93) only 11 out 39, revealing the need for further studies and PHC actions to improve the diabetic quality of life.