Early hospital readmission (EHR) is a key negative outcome in kidney transplantation (KT). Socioeconomic (SE) factors are associated with EHR in other contexts, but have not been fully explored in EHR after KT.

METHODS: We studied the association between EHR and demographic, SE, and clinical factors in 227 KT patients at our center from 2012-13. SE factors were: marriage, number of caregivers, drive time to center, education, financial concerns, fixed income, and insurance coverage. Variables were tested univariately for association with EHR using χ² and t-tests. Variables with p<0.1 were included in a multivariate logistic regression model.

RESULTS: EHR rate was 73/227 (32%). Univariate results are summarized in Table 1. SE factors were not associated with EHR; two clinical factors were: longer length of stay (LOS) (16.2 vs 10.8 d, p<0.01) and higher rate of prior transplant (29% vs 13%, p<0.01). Patients with EHR trended toward more caregivers (2.2 vs 1.9, p=0.08, counterintuitively), older age (54.2 vs 50.5 y, p=0.09), and more dialysis years (7.9 vs 2.0, p=0.06). Variables with higher rates but non-significant p-values in EHR patients were: high school or less education, Hepatitis C virus infection (HCV), and history of intravenous drug use (IVDU). A multivariate model of EHR using variables with p<0.1 association is summarized in Table 2. Number of caregivers was not significant with odds ratio (OR) 95% confidence interval (CI) _0.9281.253_1.692. Older age had a significant OR 95% CI _1.0031.308_1.705 (p=0.048).

CONCLUSION: There was no evidence of association between socioeconomic factors and EHR at our center.

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