Circadian aspects of mortality in hospitalized patients: A retrospective observation from a large cohort

• Main Authors: Miao Fang (Author), Shunju Xiang (Author), Xiaoqiang Xiao (Author), Qianning Mo (Author), Yang Si (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: Wiley, 2023-07-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 2054-1058; 10.1002/nop2.1711
• Keywords: circadian rhythm; death; inpatients; mortality; nursing care; Nursing; RT1-120
• Source: Nursing Open, Vol 10, Iss 7, Pp 4630-4636 (2023)

Abstract Aim This study aimed to describe the circadian characteristics of hospitalized mortality in order to provide nursing guidance for preventing in‐hospital mortality. Design A retrospective analysis on inpatient information was implemented. Methods Harmonic Analysis of Time Series was applied to quantify the periodic structure of the frequency of the occurrence of death. Results A total of 3300 cases were included in the present study (male, 63.4% and median age 73 years), including 1540 (46.7%) ICU patients. Incidence of overall hospitalized death exhibited a circadian pattern, presenting peaks from 07:00 to 12:00 and 15:00 to 20:00 P.M., with 21.5% and 13.1% increase above the average at those peak points, respectively. Similarly, the incidence of sudden cardiac death (SCD) showed peaks between 06:00-12:00 and 15:00-20:00, with a 34.7% and 28.0% increase above the average at peak time, respectively. The distribution of death incidence revealed no statistical difference between SCD and non‐SCD (p = 0.525).