Mental health disorders and readmissions following acute myocardial infarction in the United States

Hospital readmissions following an acute myocardial infarction (MI) are associated with increased mortality and morbidity. The aim of this study was to investigate if there is a significant association between specific mental health disorders (MHD) and risk of hospital readmission after an index hospitalization for acute MI. We analyzed the U.S. National Readmission Database for adult acute MI hospitalizations from 2016 to 2017. Co-morbid diagnoses of MHD were obtained using appropriate ICD-10-CM diagnostic codes. The primary outcome of interest was 30-day all-cause unplanned readmission. Cox-regression analysis was used to identify the association of various MHD and risk of 30-day readmission adjusted for demographics, medical and cardiac comorbidities, and coronary revascularization. We identified a total of 1,045,752 hospitalizations for acute MI; patients had mean age of 67 ± 13 years with 37.6% female. The prevalence of any MHD was 15.0 ± 0.9%. After adjusting for potential confounders, comorbid diagnosis of major depression [HR 1.11 (95% CI 1.07–1.15)], bipolar disorders [1.32 (1.19–1.45)], anxiety disorders [1.09 (1.05–1.13)] and schizophrenia/other psychotic disorders [1.56 (1.43–1.69)] were independently associated with higher risk of 30-day readmission compared to those with no comorbid MHD. We conclude that MHD are significantly associated with a higher independent risk of 30-day all-cause hospital readmissions among acute MI hospitalizations.