Early initiation of pulmonary rehab after COPD hospitalization lowers readmission risk
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Patients hospitalized for a COPD exacerbation who participated in pulmonary rehabilitation within 90 days of discharge had a lower rate of readmission within 1 year, according to new data.
Researchers evaluated medical records of 197,376 Medicare beneficiaries who were hospitalized for COPD in 2014 at 4,446 U.S. hospitals.
Overall, 1.5% of patients initiated pulmonary rehabilitation within 90 days of discharge. Among all patients, 66% were rehospitalized within 1 year of discharge, including 59% of patients who initiated pulmonary rehabilitation within 1 year and 66% of those who did not, according to the abstract.
Mean number of rehospitalizations was 1.4 for patients who initiated pulmonary rehabilitation within 1 year vs. 1.8 for those who did not initiate pulmonary rehabilitation, according to the abstract.
Risk for readmission or death was 33% lower for those with early participation in pulmonary rehab than those who did not participate in pulmonary rehabilitation (HR = 0.67; 95% CI, 0.66-0.69), according to the abstract.
When the researchers analyzed patients who survived at least 1 year after discharge, risk for readmission was 24% lower in those who started pulmonary rehabilitation (HR = 0.76; 95% CI, 0.74-0.78).
Additionally, median time spent in a hospital or nursing home was 5 days for patients who initiated pulmonary rehabilitation vs. 8 days for those who did not, according to the abstract.
“Our results support findings from recent randomized controlled trials that pulmonary rehabilitation reduces rehospitalization in routine clinical settings,” Mihaela Stefan, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine at University of Massachusetts Medical School-Baystate, said in a press release.
Increasing early participation in pulmonary rehabilitation following COPD exacerbation could help patients avoid the “vicious cycle that leads to a higher risk of rehospitalization,” Stefan said.
These data were scheduled for presentation at the American Thoracic Society International Conference.