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Patterns of mortality risk among patients with substance use disorder: an opportunity for proactive patient safety?

Svensson, Jakob LU ; Bergström, Johan LU ; Kåberg, Martin and Becker, Per LU orcid (2022) In BMC Psychiatry 22(1).
Abstract
Background
Patients with substance use disorder (SUD) suffer from excess mortality compared to the overall population. This study aims to identify patterns in death rates among patients with SUD visiting a SUD emergency ward and to explore whether this knowledge can be used as input to identify patients at risk and increase patient safety.

Methods
Hospital visit data to a SUD emergency ward were collected between 2010 and 2020 through medical records. Data included gender, age, SUD diagnosis, and the time of death. The Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test was used to test between ordinal variables, and risk ratio was used to quantify the difference in mortality risk. All statistical tests were two-sided, with a 95% confidence... (More)
Background
Patients with substance use disorder (SUD) suffer from excess mortality compared to the overall population. This study aims to identify patterns in death rates among patients with SUD visiting a SUD emergency ward and to explore whether this knowledge can be used as input to identify patients at risk and increase patient safety.

Methods
Hospital visit data to a SUD emergency ward were collected between 2010 and 2020 through medical records. Data included gender, age, SUD diagnosis, and the time of death. The Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test was used to test between ordinal variables, and risk ratio was used to quantify the difference in mortality risk. All statistical tests were two-sided, with a 95% confidence interval and a minimum significance level of 0.05.

Results
The male patients in the study group had 1.41–1.59 higher mortality risk than the female patients. The study revealed an average death rate of 0.14 among all patients during the study period. Although patients with a diagnosed alcohol use disorder constituted 73.7% of the cohort, having an opioid use disorder or sedative hypnotics use disorder was associated with the highest death rates; 1.29–1.52 and 1.47–1.74 higher mortality risk than those without such diagnoses.

Conclusion
This study demonstrates that data from visits to SUD emergency wards can be used to identify mortality risk factors, such as gender, type of diagnosis, number of diagnoses, and number of visits to the SUD emergency ward. Knowledge about patterns of patient visits and mortality risk could be used to increase patient safety through a decision support tool integrated with the electronic medical records. An improved system for early detection of increased mortality risk offers an opportunity for an adaptive patient safety system. (Less)
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author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Patient safety, Psychiatry, Emergency ward, Substance use disorder, Mortality, Risk, Patient safety, Psychiatry, Emergency ward, Substance use disorder, Mortality, Risk
in
BMC Psychiatry
volume
22
issue
1
article number
770
pages
12 pages
publisher
BioMed Central (BMC)
external identifiers
  • pmid:36476580
  • scopus:85143561667
ISSN
1471-244X
DOI
10.1186/s12888-022-04437-6
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
8462ab12-e499-4ffd-9c5a-18f1324f99f9
date added to LUP
2022-12-08 09:59:36
date last changed
2024-02-15 20:36:30
@article{8462ab12-e499-4ffd-9c5a-18f1324f99f9,
  abstract     = {{Background<br/>Patients with substance use disorder (SUD) suffer from excess mortality compared to the overall population. This study aims to identify patterns in death rates among patients with SUD visiting a SUD emergency ward and to explore whether this knowledge can be used as input to identify patients at risk and increase patient safety.<br/><br/>Methods<br/>Hospital visit data to a SUD emergency ward were collected between 2010 and 2020 through medical records. Data included gender, age, SUD diagnosis, and the time of death. The Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test was used to test between ordinal variables, and risk ratio was used to quantify the difference in mortality risk. All statistical tests were two-sided, with a 95% confidence interval and a minimum significance level of 0.05.<br/><br/>Results<br/>The male patients in the study group had 1.41–1.59 higher mortality risk than the female patients. The study revealed an average death rate of 0.14 among all patients during the study period. Although patients with a diagnosed alcohol use disorder constituted 73.7% of the cohort, having an opioid use disorder or sedative hypnotics use disorder was associated with the highest death rates; 1.29–1.52 and 1.47–1.74 higher mortality risk than those without such diagnoses.<br/><br/>Conclusion<br/>This study demonstrates that data from visits to SUD emergency wards can be used to identify mortality risk factors, such as gender, type of diagnosis, number of diagnoses, and number of visits to the SUD emergency ward. Knowledge about patterns of patient visits and mortality risk could be used to increase patient safety through a decision support tool integrated with the electronic medical records. An improved system for early detection of increased mortality risk offers an opportunity for an adaptive patient safety system.}},
  author       = {{Svensson, Jakob and Bergström, Johan and Kåberg, Martin and Becker, Per}},
  issn         = {{1471-244X}},
  keywords     = {{Patient safety; Psychiatry; Emergency ward; Substance use disorder; Mortality; Risk; Patient safety; Psychiatry; Emergency ward; Substance use disorder; Mortality; Risk}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{12}},
  number       = {{1}},
  publisher    = {{BioMed Central (BMC)}},
  series       = {{BMC Psychiatry}},
  title        = {{Patterns of mortality risk among patients with substance use disorder: an opportunity for proactive patient safety?}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-04437-6}},
  doi          = {{10.1186/s12888-022-04437-6}},
  volume       = {{22}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}