Malnutrition Among Elderly COPD Patients Tied to Increased 180-Day Readmission Risk, reports study

This study took place in a hospital in Southwest China and studied 319 elderly patients with COPD. It included information on demographics, nutritional assessment, lung function tests, and the number of comorbidities. GLIM criteria grades patients into well-nourished or malnourished. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was applied to report a relationship between malnutrition and the risk of readmission within 180 days. Other specific factors, such as airway obstruction and comorbidities, were also considered to assess the impact of these conditions on readmission.

Results

• Among 319 patients with COPD, malnutrition was detected in 158 patients, which corresponded to 49.53% of the study population. Logistic regression identified three significant factors with a link to hospital readmission at 180 days: a status of malnutrition (Odds Ratio [OR] = 3.184), the presence of very severe airway obstruction (OR = 3.735), and three or more comorbid conditions (OR = 5.754).

• These results indicate multifactorial risk factors of readmission for elderly COPD patients, especially poor nutrition and complications in medical conditions as predictors of readmission.

• It highlights the importance of providing effective nutritional care with better management of this vulnerable population in the clinical setting.

• Malnutrition prevalence among the COPD elderly patients: 49.53% (158 out of 319).

• Malnutrition remained significantly associated with an increased odd of readmission up to 180 days with an odd ratio over three times (OR = 3.184).

• Only a few studies reported an association between very severe airway obstruction with increased readmission risk, with OR of 3.735.

• Those patients with three or more comorbidities had nearly sixfold increased risk of readmission, with an OR of 5.754.

• However, the findings do point to a need to further clinically evaluate elderly COPD patients, particularly nutritional status, severity of airway obstruction, and number of comorbidities, to predict and perhaps prevent hospital readmissions.

This study underlines the pressing need to determine and treat malnutrition in elderly patients with COPD because it poses a serious effect on the danger of 180-day readmission. Malnutrition, aside from severity of airway obstruction, along with the number of comorbid conditions, was one of the most critical predictors of hospital readmission. Timely nutritional intervention should therefore be integrated into the clinical management of hospitalized elderly patients with COPD in order to minimize the rate of readmission to the hospital and enhance their prognostic outcome.

Reference:

Liu, H., Song, J., Wang, Z., Wu, S., Qiu, S., Chen, B., Rao, Z., & Jing, X. (2024). Investigation of nutrition status and analysis of 180-day readmission factors in elderly hospitalized patients with COPD. Aging Clinical and Experimental Research, 36(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-024-02820-9