ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2008
Effect of social factors on winter hospital admission for respiratory disease: a case-control study of older people in the UK.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 50 citations in OpenAlex.
- Older Adults' Social Relationships and Health Care Utilization: A Systematic Review.American journal of public health · 2018Pooled it
- Dupilumab in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a pooled analysis of emergency department visits, hospital admissions, and systemic corticosteroid use.American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine · 2026Trial
- Tackling NHS winter pressures due to respiratory disease: the UK Centre for Applied Respiratory Research Innovation and Impact (CARRii).NPJ primary care respiratory medicine · 2026Review
- Associations of social isolation and loneliness with healthcare utilization among older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Innovation in aging · 2026Review
- Performance against quality indicators in the initial assessment of patients with respiratory infections in acute medicine services.BMJ open respiratory research · 2025Article
- Impact of Loneliness and Social Support on Acute Health Service Use and Symptom Exacerbation Among Adults with Asthma and COPD.Journal of clinical psychology in medical settings · 2025Article
- Longitudinal associations between loneliness, social isolation, and healthcare utilisation trajectories: a latent growth curve analysis.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2024Article
- The silent epidemic: exploring the link between loneliness and chronic diseases in China's elderly.BMC geriatrics · 2024Article
- Risk of winter hospitalisation and death from acute respiratory infections in Scotland: national retrospective cohort study.Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine · 2024Article
- Health Need Factors Are the Key Drivers of Hospitalization among the Elderly Living Alone: An Analysis of Longitudinal Data.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Impact of social isolation on mortality and morbidity in 20 high-income, middle-income and low-income countries in five continents.BMJ global health · 2021Observational
- Social isolation and loneliness as risk factors for hospital admissions for respiratory disease among older adults.Thorax · 2020Article
- Planned and Unplanned Hospital Admissions and Their Relationship with Social Factors: Findings from a National, Prospective Study of People Aged 76 Years or Older.Health services research · 2018Article
- The causes and consequences of seasonal variation in COPD exacerbations.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2014Review
- Therapeutic paralysis in veterans with COPD.Respiratory medicine · 2013Article
- The social determinants of health and pandemic H1N1 2009 influenza severity.American journal of public health · 2012Article
- Article
- Psychosocial risk factors for hospital readmission in COPD patients on early discharge services: a cohort study.BMC pulmonary medicine · 2011Article
- Article
- Patient safety and quality of care continue to improve in NHS North West following early implementation of the European Working Time Directive.QJM : monthly journal of the Association of Physicians · 2010Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundEvery winter, hospitals in the UK and other developed countries experience a surge in respiratory admissions. Ecological studies suggest that social circumstances may be an important determinant.
aimTo establish the most important factors associated with winter hospital admissions among older people presenting with acute respiratory disease, especially the relative effect of social factors. DESIGN OF STUDY: case-control study.
settingSeventy-nine general practices in central England.
methodOf a cohort of patients consulting medical services with lower respiratory tract infection or exacerbation of chronic respiratory disease, 157 hospitalised cases were compared to 639 controls. Social, medical, and other factors were examined by interview and GP records.
resultsMeasures of material deprivation were not significant risk factors for admission at either individual or area level, although social isolation (odds ratio [OR] 4.5; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.3 to 15.8) resulted in an increased risk of admission. The most important independent risk factor was the presence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD; OR 4.0; 95% CI = 1.4 to 11.4), other chronic disease (OR 2.9; 95% CI = 1.2 to 7.0), or both (OR 6.7; 95% CI = 2.4 to 18.4). Being housebound was also an independent risk factor (OR 2.2; 95% CI = 1.0 to 4.8).
conclusionSocioeconomic factors had little relative effect compared with medical and functional factors. The most important was the presence of long-term medical conditions (especially COPD), being housebound, and having received two or more courses of oral steroid treatment in the previous year. This combination of factors could be used by primary medical services to identify older patients most vulnerable to winter admissions. Clinicians should ensure that patients with COPD are better supported to manage their condition.
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