Association between home-visit nursing utilization and all-cause hospitalization among long-term care insurance beneficiaries: A retrospective cohort study

Background Ensuring and improving long-term care services that use limited healthcare resources more efficiently is a major concern for many aging societies. Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between use of home-visit nursing services and all-cause hospitalization in a home-visit nursing-recommended group. Design A retrospective cohort study. Setting Population-based sample of long-term care insurance beneficiaries from the long-term care insurance 2002–2013 claims database in South Korea. Participants Long-term care insurance beneficiaries who need one or more types of nursing care were defined as the home-visit nursing −recommended group (n = 4173). Measurements The dependent variable in this study was all-cause hospitalization in the home-visit nursing-recommended population. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was used to identify the association between home-visit nursing service use and all-cause hospitalization. Results A total of 3.8% of the subjects used home-visit nursing services. When participants who used home-visit nursing services were set as the reference group, participants who did not use home-visit nursing services had a higher risk of hospitalization (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.25, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.07–1.47). Additionally, participants who did not use home-visit nursing services and who did not have a caregiver showed a marked increase in the risk of hospitalization (HR = 6.81, 95% CI = 1.17–39.66). Participants who did not use home-visit nursing services with greater comorbidity showed a considerable increase in risk of hospitalization (HR = 1.36, 95% CI = 1.09–1.70). Conclusions Non-use of home-visit nursing services was associated with an increased risk of all-cause hospitalization in the home-visit nursing-recommended population. The present results suggest that the use of home-visit nursing services reduced the risk of hospitalization. Moreover, home-visit nursing may play an essential role in reducing hospitalization risk in the absence of caregiver support.