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Predictors of Hospitalization for Injection Drug Users Seeking Care for Soft Tissue Infections

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Abstract

BACKGROUND

Soft tissue infections (STIs) from injection drug use are a common cause of Emergency Department visits, hospitalizations, and operating room procedures, yet little is known about factors that may predict the need for these costly medical services.

OBJECTIVE

To describe a cohort of injection drug users seeking Emergency Department care for STIs and to identify risk factors associated with hospitalization. We hypothesized that participants who delayed seeking care would be hospitalized more often than those who did not.

DESIGN

Cohort study using in-person structured interviews and medical record review. Logistic regression assessed the association between hospital admission and delay in seeking care as well as other demographic, clinical, and psychosocial factors.

PARTICIPANTS

Injection drug users who sought Emergency Department care for STIs from May 2001 to March 2002.

RESULTS

Of the 136 participants, 55 (40%) were admitted to the hospital. Delay in seeking care was not associated with hospital admission. Participants admitted for their infection were significantly more likely to be living in a shelter (P = .01) and to report being hospitalized 2 or more times in the past year (P < .01).

CONCLUSIONS

We identified a subpopulation of injection drug users, mostly living in shelters, who were hospitalized frequently in the past year and who were more likely to be hospitalized for their current infections compared to others. As members of this subpopulation can be easily identified and located, they may benefit from interventions to reduce the health care utilization resulting from these infections.

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Acknowledgment

This research was supported by the Health Services Research and Development Service, Department of Veterans Affairs; University of Washington Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program. Dr. Takahashi is a staff physician at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System and is currently supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA #RO3DA14518). Dr. Baernstein is a staff physician at Harborview Medical Center. Dr. Binswanger is an investigator at University of Colorado and was a VA Fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at the University of Washington at the time this study was conducted. Dr. Bradley is an investigator at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System and is currently supported by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA #K23AA00313) and was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Generalist Physician Faculty Scholar at the time this study was conducted. Dr. Merrill has received funding from Harborview Medical Center in support of this work.

Potential Financial Conflicts of Interest

None disclosed.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. VA Puget Sound Health Care System, 1660 S. Columbian Way, Seattle, WA, 98108, USA

    Traci A. Takahashi MD, MPH & Katharine Bradley MD, MPH

  2. Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, WA, USA

    Amy Baernstein MD, MPH & Joseph O. Merrill MD, MPH

  3. University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA, USA

    Traci A. Takahashi MD, MPH, Amy Baernstein MD, MPH, Katharine Bradley MD, MPH & Joseph O. Merrill MD, MPH

  4. University of Colorado at Denver and Health and Sciences Center, Denver, CO, USA

    Ingrid Binswanger MD, MS

Authors
  1. Traci A. Takahashi MD, MPH
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  2. Amy Baernstein MD, MPH
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  3. Ingrid Binswanger MD, MS
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  4. Katharine Bradley MD, MPH
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  5. Joseph O. Merrill MD, MPH
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Traci A. Takahashi MD, MPH.

Additional information

The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Department of Veterans Affairs, University of Washington or University of Colorado.

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Takahashi, T.A., Baernstein, A., Binswanger, I. et al. Predictors of Hospitalization for Injection Drug Users Seeking Care for Soft Tissue Infections. J GEN INTERN MED 22, 382–388 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-006-0079-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-006-0079-y

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