[A preliminary study of the determinants of hospital length of stay among the aged].
The current study reviewed the medical records of those inpatients who were 55 years old at admission and were admitted to Kaohsiung Medical College Hospital between 1983 and 1992. The purpose was to investigate the influences of patient characteristics and disease factor on the length of hospital stay. The long-term goals of these results are to provide a better understanding of the medical needs of aged people, especially the need of hospital beds, and to aid in an effective planning of medical resources for them to maintain their health. 57,009 records were collected. The average length of stay was 14.28 days with a standard deviation of 21.06. Gender, age, condition at discharge, number of diseases diagnosed, year admitted, and whether insured showed significant difference when they were tested by univariate statistical procedures. Multiple regression (MR) analysis was used to test the relative importance of these variables. It showed that whether or not cataracts were diagnosed had the most influence on the length of stay for the pooled samples. Condition at discharge, numbers of admissions, number of diseases diagnosed, and insurance had moderate predictive power. MR on the ten leading diseases separately showed that numbers of admissions, conditions at discharge, and insurance status were the three most important predictors at most models. Number of diseases diagnosed and admission year were also in several of the 10 models. However, gender did not enter any model.
Chen
J W
JW
Department of Medical Sociology, Kaohsiung Medical College, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Huang
M S
MS
Tsai
J H
JH
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006299:Health Services for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012044:Regression Analysis