Increasing thirty-day readmissions of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis in the United States: A national dilemma

Dushyant Singh Dahiya; Abhilash Perisetti; Asim Kichloo; Amandeep Singh; Hemant Goyal; Laura Rotundo; Madhu Vennikandam; Hafeez Shaka; Gurdeep Singh; Jagmeet Singh; Sailaja Pisipati; Mohammad Al-Haddad; Madhusudhan R Sanaka; Sumant Inamdar

doi:10.4291/wjgp.v13.i3.85

Increasing thirty-day readmissions of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis in the United States: A national dilemma

World J Gastrointest Pathophysiol. 2022 May 22;13(3):85-95. doi: 10.4291/wjgp.v13.i3.85.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Internal Medicine, Central Michigan University College of Medicine, Saginaw, MI 48601, United States. dush.dahiya@gmail.com.
² Division of Gastroenterology, Parkview Cancer Institute, Fort Wayne, IN 46845, United States.
³ Department of Internal Medicine, Central Michigan University College of Medicine, Saginaw, MI 48601, United States.
⁴ Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH 44195, United States.
⁵ Department of Internal Medicine, The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education, Scranton, PA 18505, United States.
⁶ Section of Digestive Diseases, Yale New Haven Hospital, New Haven, CT 06510, United States.
⁷ Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Sparrow Hospital/Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, Lansing, MI 48912, United States.
⁸ Department of Internal Medicine, John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County, Chicago, IL 60612, United States.
⁹ Department of Internal Medicine, Our Lady of Lourdes Memorial Hospital, Binghamton, NY 13905, United States.
¹⁰ Department of Internal Medicine, Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital, Sayre, PA 18840, United States.
¹¹ Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ 85259, United States.
¹² Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 46202, United States.
¹³ Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR 72205, United States.

Abstract

Background: The prevalence of Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) is on the rise worldwide. This rising prevalence is concerning as patients with CD and UC may frequently relapse leading to recurrent hospitalizations and increased healthcare utilization.

Aim: To identify trends and adverse outcomes for 30 d readmissions for CD and UC.

Methods: This was a retrospective, interrupted trends study involving all adult (≥ 18 years) 30 d readmissions of CD and UC from the National Readmission Database (NRD) between 2008 and 2018. Patients < 18 years, elective, and traumatic hospitalizations were excluded from this study. We identified hospitalization characteristics and readmission rates for each calendar year. Trends of inpatient mortality, mean length of hospital stay (LOS) and mean total hospital cost (THC) were calculated using a multivariate logistic trend analysis adjusting for age, gender, insurance status, comorbidity burden and hospital factors. Furthermore, trends between CD and UC readmissions were compared using regression of the interaction coefficient after adjusting for age and gender to determine relative trends between the two populations. Stata^® Version 16 software (StataCorp, TX, United States) was used for statistical analysis and P value ≤ 0.05 were considered statistically significant.

Results: Total number of 30 d readmissions increased from 6202 in 2010 to 7672 in 2018 for CD and from 3272 in 2010 to 4234 in 2018 for UC. We noted increasing trends for 30-day all-cause readmission rate of CD from 14.9% in 2010 to 17.6% in 2018 (P-trend < 0.001), CD specific readmission rate from 7.1% in 2010 to 8.2% in 2018 (P-trend < 0.001), 30-day all-cause readmission rate of UC from 14.1% in 2010 to 15.7% in 2018 (P-trend = 0.003), and UC specific readmission rate from 5.2% in 2010 to 5.6% in 2018 (P-trend = 0.029). There was no change in the risk adjusted trends of inpatient mortality and mean LOS for CD and UC readmissions. However, we found an increasing trend of mean THC for UC readmissions. After comparison, there was no statistical difference in the trends for 30 d all-cause readmission rate, inpatient mortality, and mean LOS between CD and UC readmissions.

Conclusion: There was an increase in total number of 30 d readmissions for CD and UC with a trend towards increasing 30 d all-cause readmission rates.

Keywords: Crohn’s disease; Inflammatory bowel disease; Readmissions; Trends; Ulcerative colitis.