Causes and predictors of unplanned hospital readmission in inflammatory bowel disease patients

Abstract

Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic disease that involves ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD). Patients with IBD experience frequent admissions to the hospital. Readmission carries a potential burden to the health care system and has negative impacts on the patients. Readmissions can be reduced by identifying the causing factors. This study aimed at identifying the reasons for readmission in adult patients with IBD at King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Methods: A retrospective cohort study enrolled adult patients with confirmed IBD. The collected data included patients' demographics, co-morbidities, laboratory tests, type of IBD, number of readmissions in 1 week, 3 months, 6 months, and per year, reasons for readmission, intervention, and outcomes. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software version 21 was used to analyze the collected data. Results: A total of 247 IBD patients were included; 58.3% had CD, and 41.7% had UC. There were 84.2% reported 1–2 times readmissions. Abdominal pain and diarrhea were the major causes of admission in the first readmission (73.7% and 58.7%, respectively), second readmission (30.8% and 17.4%, respectively), third admission (12.6% and 9.7%, respectively), and fourth admission (8.5% and 7.3%, respectively). Conclusion: There were various causes of hospital readmissions among IBD patients, yet the major and most common causes of readmission among the four studied readmissions were abdominal pain and diarrhea. The least common reasons varied between the different readmissions.