Impact of mental disorders on unplanned readmissions for congestive heart failure patients: a population‐level study

• Published in: ESC Heart Failure 2024-04, Vol.11 (2), p.962-973
• Main Authors: Sa, Zhisheng, Badgery‐Parker, Tim, Long, Janet C., Braithwaite, Jeffrey, Brown, Martin, Levesque, Jean‐Frederic, Watson, Diane E., Westbrook, Johanna I., Mitchell, Rebecca
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anxiety; Anxiety disorder; Codes; Comorbidity; Dementia; Disease; Elder care; Frailty; Heart failure; Hospitalization; Hospitals; Mental depression; Mental disorders; Mental health; Mortality; Original; Patients; Readmission
• ISSN: 2055-5822; 2055-5822
• DOI: 10.1002/ehf2.14644

Aims Reducing preventable hospitalization for congestive heart failure (CHF) patients is a challenge for health systems worldwide. CHF patients who also have a recent or ongoing mental disorder may have worse health outcomes compared with CHF patients with no mental disorders. This study examined the impact of mental disorders on 28 day unplanned readmissions of CHF patients. Methods and results This retrospective cohort study used population‐level linked public and private hospitalization and death data of adults aged ≥18 years who had a CHF admission in New South Wales, Australia, between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2020. Individuals' mental disorder diagnosis and Charlson comorbidity and hospital frailty index scores were derived from admission records. Competing risk and cause‐specific risk analyses were conducted to examine the impact of having a mental disorder diagnosis on all‐cause hospital readmission. Of the 65 861 adults with index CHF admission discharged alive (mean age: 78.6 ± 12.1; 48% female), 19.2% (12 675) had at least one unplanned readmission within 28 days following discharge. Adults with CHF with a mental disorder diagnosis within 12 months had a higher risk of 28 day all‐cause unplanned readmission [hazard ratio (HR): 1.21, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.15–1.27, P‐value