Causes and Risk Factors of Repeated Hospitalization among Patients with Diabetic Retinopathy

Purpose. To identify the causes and risk factors of repeated hospitalization among patients with diabetic retinopathy (DR). Methods. Our study retrospectively examined the data of DR patients who were readmitted for treatments to the Department of Ophthalmology, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital between January 2012 and July 2021. We first analyzed the main causes of repeated admissions and then divided the patients into three groups according to the times of readmissions. Ordinal logistic regression was performed to determine the impact of patients’ demographic and clinical characteristics. Moreover, comparisons of the length of stay and the hospitalization cost of DR patients with repeated admission causes were conducted. Results. Among 2592 hospital discharges of 827 patients who experienced at least two hospitalizations, the major causes of repeated hospitalization were macular edema (30.83%), vitreous hemorrhage (29.09%), cataract (22.76%), proliferative membrane formation (6.91%), silicone oil removal (4.71%), retinal detachment (4.44%), and glaucoma (4.17%). The results of ordinal logistic regression showed that younger patients with medical insurance and local residence have a higher risk of repeated hospitalization (p