Main Category: Men's health
Article Date: 20 Apr 2012 - 12:00 PDT
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According to a study in , men have a considerably higher chance of needing urgent hospital care, including readmission than their female counterparts within a month of being discharged. The findings are based on 367 men and 370 women who had been admitted to the Boston Medical Center, and who were tracked for 30 days after discharge, to see whether gender played a role in needing further urgent hospital care. 


The study participants were all part of the Project Re-engineered Discharge trial, which explores different strategies to decrease hospital readmission rates in order to improve the quality of care and reduce costs. 


The findings revealed that men were on average, four years younger than the women, with better pay and access to private health insurance. Women, in contrast, had a considerably higher likelihood of being registered with a family doctor, twice as many women were taking antidepressants, and women had a higher chance of being diagnosed with depression at some time, in comparison with men.
However, women were also found to require substantially less further urgent hospital care than men, with 29 events of returning for every 100 women, compared with 47 for every 100 men. This was mainly due to the fact that men were double as likely to turn up at the emergency care department, as compared with women. 

After analyzing related factors, such as a previous visit to the emergency department or a hospital admission within the previous six months, the researchers observed that the likelihood of needing further hospital care within 30 days of discharge for both men and women more than tripled.
The researchers point out that various other key factors, such as social isolation and involvement with primary care services exclusively predicted men's hospital readmissions.
Unmarried/retired men had a 72% higher risk of needing hospital care within 30 days of discharge, whilst the same applied to 64% of men who did not see their family doctor within this period, and to 53% of those who tested positive for depression.
The researchers remark:
"Our findings raise the possibility that social isolation - as illustrated by the positive association with being retired, unmarried and symptoms of depression - may be important factors to target for intervention." 


They refer to earlier studies that demonstrate that men's social isolation is likely to contribute to poorer health outcomes. They add that women are also better at using health services than men, due to pregnancy and breast and cervical cancer screening programs, saying:


"However, lower rate of connectedness to primary care among men may also contribute to their excess use of hospital services, and the finding that they may delay accessing care when it is needed."
Written By Petra Rattue
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today
Shaula Woz, Suzanne Mitchell, Caroline Hesko, Michael Paasche-Orlow, Jeffrey Greenwald, V K Chetty, Julie O'Donnell and Brian Jack
BMJ, April 2012, doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2011-000428
MLA
Petra Rattue. "Emergency Care Occurrences After Discharge More Common Among Men." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 20 Apr. 2012. Web.
20 Apr. 2012. <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/244387.php>
APA
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/244387.php.
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