Predictors of Inpatient Mortality and Resource Utilization for the Elderly Patients With Chronic Hepatitis C (CH-C) in the United States

New incidents of chronic hepatitis C (CH-C) have stabilized yet the full impact of CH-C is not realized. Assess inpatient mortality and resource utilization for CH-C patients hospitalized in the United States. Adult CH-C patients were identified from The National Inpatient Sample (NIS) 2005 to 2009 database using the International Classification of Disease, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) diagnosis codes (070.51, 070.54, 070.70, 070.71, 070.41, and 070.44) also used to identify comorbidities. 324,823 hospitalized CH-C patients were identified. Of these, 13.63% (N = 44,288) were older than 65. The rate of hospitalization for the elderly cohort steadily increased over the study period with Medicare as the payer for the majority (86%). This cohort had higher inpatient charges, approximately a half day longer hospital stay (P < 0.001) and more moderate or severe illness. During the index hospitalization, older CH-C patients were twice more likely to die than the younger age-group (5% versus 2%, P < 0.001). In the adjusted model, older age (OR: 1.02 [95% CI, 1.02–1.03]), severity of illness (OR: 12.06 [95% CI, 10.68–13.62]), and number of diagnoses (OR: 1.10 [95% CI, 1.09–1.11]) were associated with higher in-hospital mortality; severity of illness and having private insurance were significantly associated with charge per hospital stay (P < 0.001). The number of CH-C patients 65 and older increased due to the aging of the baby boomer population. Early treatment of CH-C patients with highly effective, well-tolerated, new anti-HCV regimens may prevent this significant societal burden.