Readmissions Among Patients Admitted With Acute Decompensated Heart Failure Based on Income Quartiles

Abstract

Objective: To determine the impact of socioeconomic status using median household income within the patient's community on rate of readmission among patients with heart failure (HF). Patients and Methods: We derived a study cohort of patients who were admitted from January 1, 2013, through December 31, 2014, with congestive HF from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project National Readmission Database. Patients were stratified into quartiles according to the estimated median household income of residents in the patient's ZIP Code (quartile 1, lowest; quartile 4, highest). The primary outcome was 30-day readmission. We used univariate and multivariate models to compare patients with respect to baseline characteristics, income quartiles, and 30-day readmission. Results: About 20% (110,152 of 546,841) of patients with an index HF admission were readmitted within the first 30 days. Patients in the lowest income quartile had a higher readmission rate compared with those in the highest income quartile (21.1% [35,422 of 167,625] vs 19.5% [20,771 of 106,353]; P