Year: 2009
Type: article
Abstract: BACKGROUND AND CONCEPTUAL MODELHeart failure is a major health concern in the United States.Statistics for 2008 indicate that it affects 5.3 million Americans, about 2.7 million males and 2.7 million females, primarily older people (AHA/ASA, 2008).The incidence of heart failure is expected to rise with the aging of the population.In people over age 65, a diagnosis of heart failure is the most common reason for hospitalization (Hunt et al., 2006; Rosamond et al., 2007).Estimated direct and indirect expenditures for heart failure patients will be $34.8 billion for 2008 (AHA/ASA, 2008).Emergency room visits and unplanned hospital readmission consume a considerable amount of healthcare and social resources.Thus, knowledge of the characteristics and predictive factors for patients who are at high risk for hospital readmission could provide healthcare professionals with a better understanding upon which to develop effective interventions aimed at improving patient outcomes in heart failure patients.This study was intended to explore the problem of unplanned hospital readmission in heart failure patients.Chapter I provides a brief introduction of heart failure in the United States, the conceptual framework guiding this study, as well as the study's purpose and significance.
Author: Cheng‐Hui Chou
Institution: Case Western Reserve University
Language: English
Subfield: Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2477798912