A Longitudinal Analysis of Functional Disability, Recovery, and Nursing Home Utilization After Hospitalization for Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions Among Community‐Living Older Persons

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE Hospitalizations for ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs) are considered potentially preventable. With little known about the functional outcomes of older persons after ACSC‐related hospitalizations, our objectives were to describe: (1) the 6‐month course of postdischarge functional disability, (2) the cumulative monthly probability of functional recovery, and (3) the cumulative monthly probability of incident nursing home (NH) admission. METHODS The analytic sample included 251 ACSC‐related hospitalizations from a cohort of 754 nondisabled, community‐living persons aged 70 years and older who were interviewed monthly for up to 19 years. Patient‐reported disability scores in basic, instrumental, and mobility activities ranged from 0 to 13. Functional recovery was defined as returning within 6 months of discharge to a total disability score less than or equal to that immediately preceding hospitalization. RESULTS The mean age was 85.1 years, and the mean disability score was 5.4 in the month prior to the ACSC‐related hospitalization. After the ACSC‐related hospitalization, total disability scores peaked at month 1 and improved modestly over the next 5 months, but remained greater than the pre‐hospitalization score. Functional recovery was achieved by 70% of patients, and incident NH admission was experienced by 50% within 6 months after the 251 ACSC‐related hospitalizations. CONCLUSIONS During the 6 months after an ACSC‐related hospitalization, older persons exhibited total disability scores that were higher than those immediately preceding hospitalization, with 3 of 10 not achieving functional recovery and half experiencing incident NH admission. These findings provide evidence that older persons experience clinically meaningful adverse patient‐reported outcomes after ACSC‐related hospitalizations.