Prediction of Patient's Adherence to the Post-Intubation Tracheal Stenosis Follow-up Plan in Iran: Application of two Data Mining Techniques

Timely diagnosis of post-intubation tracheal stenosis (PITS), which is one of the most serious complications of endotracheal intubation, may change its natural history. To prevent PITS, patients who are discharged from the intensive care unit (ICU) with more than 24 hours of intubation should be actively followed-up for three months after extubation. This study aimed to evaluate the abilities of artificial neural network (ANN) and decision tree (DT) methods in predicting the patients' adherence to the follow-up plan and revealing the knowledge behind PITS screening system development requirements. In this cohort study, conducted in 14 ICUs during 12 months in ten cities of Iran, the data of 203 intubated ICU-discharged patients were collected. Ten influential factors were defined for adherences to the PITS follow-up (P