Background: The identification of older patients at risk of poor hospital outcomes (e.g. longer hospital stay, in-hospital mortality, and institutionalisation) is important to provide an effective healthcare service.
Objective: To identify factors related to older patients' clinical, nutritional, functional and socio-demographic profiles at admission to an acute care ward that can predict poor hospital outcomes.
Design and setting: The CRiteria to assess appropriate Medication use among Elderly complex patients project was a multicentre, observational study performed in geriatric and internal medicine acute care wards of seven Italian hospitals.
Subjects: One thousand one hundred twenty-three consecutively admitted patients aged 65 years or older.
Methods: Hospital outcomes were length of stay, in-hospital mortality, and institutionalisation.
Results: Mean age of participants was 81 years, 56% were women. Median length of stay was 10 (7-14) days, 41 patients died during hospital stay and 37 were newly institutionalised. Number of drugs before admission, metastasized cancer, renal failure or dialysis, infection, falls at home during the last year, pain, and walking speed were independent predictors of LoS. Total dependency in activities of daily living and inability to perform grip strength test were independent predictors of in-hospital mortality. Malnutrition and total dependency in activities of daily living were independent predictors of institutionalisation.
Conclusions: Our results confirm that not only diseases, but also multifaceted aspects of ageing such as physical function and malnutrition are strong predictors of hospital outcomes and suggest that these variables should be systematically recorded.