According to research presented at AAAAI 2017, chronic rhinitis treatment should be prioritized for patients with chronic obstructive lung diseases including COPD and asthma, in order to reduce 30-day readmission rates (30d-RR).

Researchers aimed to assess the 30d-RR for chronic obstructive lung diseases using the hospital patient database from University of Cincinnati Hospitals (UCH) between October, 2012 and July, 2016. The study compared UCH readmission rates to the national average of 22.1%.

According to the results, of 11,311 hospital encounters for 5,735 chronic lung disease patients, 2,104 (18.6%) were readmitted within 30 days.

  • The mean age of readmitted (n52,087) and non-readmitted (n53,648) patients were 53.2 vs. 50.6 years, respectively (p<.001).
  • No difference in average length of stay (1.74 vs. 1.68 days),
  • A significantly greater percentage of readmitted (4.1%) versus non-readmitted (2.7%) patients died over this period.
  • Comorbidities chronic rhinitis, diabetes mellitus, cardiac arrhythmia, anemia, tobacco use, or obesity significantly increased the 30d-RR.

Researchers concluded that chronic rhinitis should be a treatment focus in order to reduce 30-day readmissions, even at UCH whose readmissions rate (18.6% was better than the national average (22.1%).