Impact of socio-economic status on the hospital readmission of Congestive Heart Failure patients: a prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to examine the impacts of multiple indicators of Socio-economic Status (SES) on Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) related readmission. METHODS: A prospective study consisting of 315 patients without the history of admission due to CHF was carried out in Tehran during 2010 and 2011. They were classified into quartiles based on their SES applying Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and followed up for one year. Using stratified Cox regression analysis, Hazard Ratios (HRs) were computed to assess the impact of SES on the readmission due to CHF. RESULTS: During the 12 months follow-up, 122 (40%) were readmitted at least once. HR of lowest SES patients vs. the highest SES patients (the fourth versus first quartile) was 2.66 (95% CI= 1.51-4.66). Variables including abnormal ejection fraction (<40%), poor physical activity, poor drug adherence, and hypertension were also identified as significant independent predictors of readmission. CONCLUSION: The results showed low SES is a significant contributing factor to increased readmission due to CHF. It seems that the outcome of CHF depends on the SES of patients even after adjusting for some of main intermediate factors.