A SURVIVAL ANALYSIS OF INSTITUTIONAL RELOCATION IN A CHRONIC CARE HOSPITAL

The association of institutional relocation and mortality among elderl y patients has been the subject of considerable debate, in part, becau se of equivocal findings in the literature. However, much of the resea rch in this area is limited by small sample sizes, use of arbitrary fo llow-up periods and crude statistical methods. The present analyses ar e based on six years of mortality data in a chronic care hospital that experienced a mass relocation of patients to a new facility. After ad justing for age, gender and length of stay before follow-up, the odds ratio for mortality associated with relocation was 1.53.