Predictors of Mortality in Home Health Care Service: Data from Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Objective This study aimed to 1) report the prevalence of chronic conditions among Saudi people receiving long-term home health care (HHC) services, 2) identify the predictors of mortality among individuals receiving long-term HHC services, and 3) study the association between frailty and poor health outcomes among HHC users. Design Retrospective cross-sectional descriptive study. Setting and Participants A total of 555 participants were recruited from HHC services at King Saud University Medical City (KSUMC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. We collected the data from electronic health records (EHR), patient charts, and caregiver interviews for 555 participants included in HHC program from the year 2019 to 2022. Methods Only individuals fulfilling the HHC program’s eligibility criteria were included to the study. A total of 555 participants were included in the analysis. We assessed the functional performance by the Katz activity of daily living and Bristol Activity of Daily Living Scale (BADLS). A trained health care provider assessed frailty using the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS). We calculated the means and frequency to describe the prevalence of chronic conditions and variables of interest. A Chi-square test or independent-samples t -test was run to determine if there were differences between the alive and deceased individuals. A binary logistic regression model was performed to predict mortality of HHC service recipients. Results The mean age for deceased individuals in HHC was 78.3 years. Over twenty percent of individuals receiving HHC services were readmitted to the hospital. We found that the strongest predictors for mortality were pressure ulcers with an odds ratio of 3.75 and p-value of <0.0001, and the Clinical Frailty Scale, which had an odds ratio of 1.69 and p-value of 0.002, using multivariate regression analysis. Conclusions and Implications In conclusion, our study found that pressure ulcers and frailty are the strongest predictors of mortality for individuals receiving home health care services.

Frailty in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia—Prevalence and Management, Where Are We?

“…Conclusively, PIM was associated with frail older adults with polypharmacy and multiple comorbidities. Alkeridy et al [ 57 ] reported the linkage of frailty with poor health outcomes among home health care service (HHCS) users. This retrospective study concluded that frailty serves as a powerful predictor of mortality for a population receiving HHCS.…”