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Newborn Length of Stay and Risk of Readmission.

Harron, K; Gilbert, R; Cromwell, D; Oddie, S; van der Meulen, J; (2017) Newborn Length of Stay and Risk of Readmission. Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol , 31 (3) pp. 221-232. 10.1111/ppe.12359. Green open access

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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Evidence on the association between newborn length of hospital stay (LOS) and risk of readmission is conflicting. We compared methods for modelling this relationship, by gestational age, using population-level hospital data on births in England between 2005-14. METHODS: The association between LOS and unplanned readmission within 30 days of postnatal discharge was explored using four approaches: (i) modelling hospital-level LOS and readmission rates; (ii) comparing trends over time in LOS and readmission; (iii) modelling individual LOS and adjusted risk of readmission; and (iv) instrumental variable analyses (hospital-level mean LOS and number of births on the same day). RESULTS: Of 4 667 827 babies, 5.2% were readmitted within 30 days. Aggregated data showed hospitals with longer mean LOS were not associated with lower readmission rates for vaginal (adjusted risk ratio (aRR) 0.87, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.66, 1.13), or caesarean (aRR 0.89, 95% CI 0.72, 1.12) births. LOS fell by an average 2.0% per year for vaginal births and 3.4% for caesarean births, while readmission rates increased by 4.4 and 5.1% per year respectively. Approaches (iii) and (iv) indicated that longer LOS was associated with a reduced risk of readmission, but only for late preterm, vaginal births (34-36 completed weeks' gestation). CONCLUSIONS: Longer newborn LOS may benefit late preterm babies, possibly due to increased medical or psychosocial support for those at greater risk of potentially preventable readmissions after birth. Research based on observational data to evaluate relationships between LOS and readmission should use methods to reduce the impact of unmeasured confounding.

Type: Article
Title: Newborn Length of Stay and Risk of Readmission.
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1111/ppe.12359
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ppe.12359
Language: English
Additional information: © 2017 The Authors Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, 2017, 31, 221–232 This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: Caesarean delivery, hospital records, length of stay, patient readmission, preterm delivery
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health > Population, Policy and Practice Dept
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1552940
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