High mortality in hospitalized elderly patients with feeding tube placement

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the influence of feeding tube placement on survival in hospitalized elderly patients. METHODS: To assess long-term mortality in an inception cohort and the influence of feeding tube placement on survival, one hundred six hospitalized elderly patients from a nursing home were followed up through and after the index hospitalization for placement of a feeding tube and mortality. Cox regression hazards model was constructed for both univariate and multivariate analyses. RESULTS: A feeding tube was placed in 15% (16/106) of the study patients during the index hospitalization. Median survival of the 106 patients was 381 days. A total of 92 patients (87%) survived the index hospitalization, and 52 (49%) were still alive at the last follow-up. In the multivariate survival model which included older age, hip fracture history, admitting diagnosis of pneumonia, and tube feeding placement, only feeding tube placement (hazard ratio, 2.29; 95% confidence interval, 1.22-4.33) was significantly associated with higher mortality. CONCLUSION: In hospitalized elderly patients from nursing home, feeding tube placement may be a risk factor for mortality.