Can a telemonitoring system lead to decreased hospital admissions in elderly patients?

• Background: Populations of elderly patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or heart failure (HF) are growing. To prevent exacerbations leading to inpatient care, a 4 year (2013-2017) telehealth intervention non-randomized single-centre clinical study was performed. We hypothesized that the patients, grouped by advanced COPD or HF, would exhibit decreased need of hospital admissions.Objective: To study hospital admissions in patients with COPD or HF using a telemonitoring system, the Health Diary.Methods: A telemonitoring system, the Health Diary, based on digital pen technology, was employed. Patients with COPD or HF treated at the University Hospital in Linköping were included if they had at least 2 hospital admissions the previous year. Data on hospital admissions was obtained from the administrative healthcare database. Expected number of hospital admissions for the study year was calculated using 5-year data for a group of patients with matching diagnosis and history of hospital admissions and was compared to the actual value in the intervention group using Poisson regression.Results: Together with the included patients, 159 HF and 136 COPD non-intervention patients was used to calculate the expected values for hospital admissions. For the 58 included HF patients, the average number of hospital admissions of 0.81 was 32.8 percent (p=0.04) lower than expected. For the 36 included COPD patients, the average number of hospital admissions of 1.44 was 37.0 percent (p=0.02) lower than expected.Conclusions: Use of the telemonitoring system, the Health Diary, decreases hospital admissions in elderly with COPD and HF.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Lungmedicin och allergi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- Respiratory Medicine and Allergy (hsv//eng)

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)