Analysis of Factors Affecting the Length of Hospital Stay for Patients with Diabetes.

OBJECTIVE: The sharp rise in health expenditure of diabetes has become a huge financial and medical burden. A retrospective study was conducted to investigate the length of hospitalization for patients with diabetes and the control methods of the length of hospitalization, so as to improve the social and economic benefits of the hospital.
METHODS: Data of patients with diabetes who were admitted in the Guangdong Shantou Central Hospital from 2011 to 2013 were collected. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis were used to explore the factors influencing the length of hospitalization for patients with diabetes such as sociological factors, disease factors, and clinical factors.
RESULTS: Univariate analysis results indicated that there were factors influencing the length of hospitalization for patients with diabetes, which were as follows: sociological factors including age (P<0.001), occupation (P=0.001), payment method (P<0.001), and the number of hospitalizations (P<0.001); disease factors including comorbidity (P<0.001) and initial glycated hemoglobin levels (P<0.001); and clinical factors including hospital-acquired infection (P<0.001), surgery (P<0.001), diagnoses within 3 days (P<0.001), department transfers (P=0.007), and treatment efficacy (P=0.003). In logistic regression analysis, 7 factors including surgery, hospital-acquired infections, comorbidities, age, payment methods, number of hospitalizations, and treatment efficacy had significant impacts on the length hospitalization for patients with diabetes.
CONCLUSION: The results of this study will be provided as a reference for a reasonable length of hospitalization of patients with diabetes. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.