Effects of Age and Sex on Hospital Readmission in Traumatic Brain Injury.
Chih-Ying Li, Amol Karmarkar, Deepak Adhikari and 2 others
PMID 29307813WHAT IT FOUND
Older adults with traumatic brain injury face higher hospital readmission risk than younger adults.
However, younger adults readmit fastest, with the highest rate in the first week after discharge. Readmission reasons also shift by age, moving from mental health and injury issues in younger groups to circulatory and respiratory problems in older groups.
Key findings
01Patients aged 76 and older had the highest adjusted risk of readmission at 30, 60, and 90 days compared to the youngest group (18-40 years).
02The youngest group (18-40 years) had the highest cumulative readmission rate during the first week post-discharge, despite having lower overall readmission rates over 90 days.
03The most common reason for 30-day readmission across all ages was poisoning or bodily injury, but other primary reasons varied significantly by age group.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study did not include data on cognitive impairment levels or specific brain injury types (e.g., Glasgow Coma Scale scores), which limits understanding of how functional status influences readmission. The database lacked information on whether patients were readmitted to acute medical wards or mental health institutions, obscuring the clinical context of the readmission. The study used only one year of data (2013), which may limit generalizability to other time periods or healthcare policy environments. The operational definition of TBI excluded concussion codes, which may underestimate the true prevalence and readmission rates in the broader TBI population.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The study was supported by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) and the Administration for Community Living (ACL).
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that older adults are the only high-risk group for readmission. While they have the highest overall risk, younger adults have the highest rate of readmission in the critical first week after discharge, requiring different monitoring strategies.