BACKGROUND: Asthma hospital admissions and readmissions are unacceptably high, thus, a method to identify those at greatest risk could be helpful. METHODS: An observational retrospective study using a Cox regression to determine the relationship between the time interval between admissions and possible covariates of a readmission. The covariates were age, sex, ethnicity, smoking habit, history of @entity566 or @entity484 /hay @entity221 , age of onset, Townsend index (TI), Jarman score (JS), and drugs on discharge. Those with p < 0.2, together with interacting covariates, from the preliminary analysis were eligible for the multivariate Cox regression analysis. RESULTS: Of the 523 @entity1 admitted between 1994 and 1998 because of their @entity565 , complete data were available for 440. Of these, 112 were readmitted. Eligible covariates for the multivariate Cox regression analysis were sex, @entity566 status, history of @entity484 /hay @entity221 , the JS and TI together with interactions between JS and TI, JS and @entity566 , and @entity566 with @entity484 /hay @entity221 . There were 278 subjects (71 with a readmission) with complete data for these eligible covariates. The multivariate analysis revealed that female sex (odds ratio [OR] = 2.65, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.42, 4.92), high JS (OR = 2.03, 95% CI 1.13-3.65), and history of @entity566 (OR = 1.88, 95% CI 1.06-3.32) formed the final model as significant predictors of readmission. CONCLUSION: Females with a history of @entity566 that were registered at a practice with a high workload (JS) had a higher risk of readmission. The analysis method used highlights how those at risk of readmission can be identified so that they can be targeted post discharge.

A Cox regression analysis of covariates for XXXX hospital readmissions.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['patients'] @entity566 :: ('MESH:D006967', 'Disease') :: ['allergy'] @entity565 :: ('MESH:D001249', 'Disease') :: ['asthma'] @entity221 :: ('MESH:D005334', 'Disease') :: ['fever'] @entity484 :: ('MESH:D004485', 'Disease') :: ['eczema']
@entity565 :: (MESH:D001249,Disease) :: ['asthma']
