Being knowledgeable about one's health and taking an initiative to manage health-care needs lowers the likelihood of being readmitted to hospital within the next 30 days of being discharged, according to Boston Medical Center (BMC) physicians.
Hospital readmission is not an uncommon phenomenon, especially among patients who fall sick regularly. Statistics show that it also costs the country a lot of money when this readmission takes place within 30 days of being discharged. The United States spends an estimated $17.4 billion annually on readmissions and it poses a great challenge to reduce health care costs.
In a new study, Boston Medical Center (BMC) physicians found that patients with a high degree of activation (being knowledgeable and able to manage one's own health and health care needs) are less likely to be readmitted to hospitals within 30 days of being discharged.
For the study, data of 695 patients was examined and rated on a scale of 1 to 4, one being lowest activation and 4 being the highest. Researchers found that patients who fell into the lowest activation category were twice more likely to be readmitted within 30 days of being discharged from a hospital.
Findings of this study present an opportunity that countries can use to cut health care costs incurred due to readmission of patients.
"Our results suggest that access to greater services is not sufficient to avoid readmissions, but that available resources need to be tailored to the patient's individual needs," explained lead author Suzanne Mitchell, MD, MS, lead author of the study and family medicine physician at BMC.
"These results reinforce a recent emphasis on targeted patient education during hospitalization," she added.
A similar study conducted by researchers from University of Stavanger's Reading Centre found that people with better reading habits were more likely to enjoy better physical and mental health. This is because reading allows them to gather health information from newspapers, magazines and online blogs that are not provided during a regular doctor's visit.
The new study, which is the first to analyze patient activation and the likelihood of hospital readmission, was published on the online Journal of General Internal Medicine.
