Time trends, sociodemographic and health factors associated with discharge and length of stay of hospitalised patients with sickle cell disease in Ghana: a retrospective analysis of national routine health database

OBJECTIVE: Patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) are prone to multiple episodes resulting in frequent hospital visits. We determined the time trends, sociodemographic and health factors associated with length of stay (LoS) for patients with SCD in Ghana. DESIGN, PARTICIPANTS, SETTING: We retrospectively analysed SCD hospitalisation records of 22 680 patients from a nationwide database of the Ghana Health Service from 2012 to 2017. OUTCOME MEASURES: Factors associated with LoS were estimated using Cox regression, while the cumulative incidence of being discharged alive was estimated with in-hospital death as a competing risk. RESULTS: Patients admitted for SCD over 6 years constituted 22 680 (0.8%) of nearly 3 million admissions. The median age and LoS for the patients were 16 years (IQR=8–24) and 3 days (IQR=2–4), representing 14 202 (62.6%) of the patients discharged alive by the third day. Patients with sickle cell anaemia (6139, 52.6%) with a crisis were more frequent than those without a crisis. Increasing age was associated with shorter LoS when comparing age groups 10–14 years (HR=1.08, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.14) and 25–29 years (HR=1.27, 95% CI 1.17 to 1.37) to patients aged 0–4 years. Patients with comorbidities had a longer LoS compared with those without (HR=0.88, 95% CI 0.86 to 0.90). CONCLUSION: This is the largest study to date documenting factors associated with LoS for patients admitted for SCD. The association of younger age with increased LoS supports recent calls for early SCD screening, especially newborns. The emerging trends and factors accounting for SCD admission require a multisector approach as these patients already experience frequent episodes of pain and hospital visits.