Predictors of length of Hospital stay among Breast Cancer Patients: a survival analysis using Weibull regression and Kaplan-Meier estimates

Abstract

Hospital length of stay (LOS) is an important measure of healthcare resource use and quality of care. A total of 54 breast cancer patients were evaluated in this retrospective study to identify factors associated with LOS using Kaplan–Meier estimation and Weibull accelerated failure time (AFT) regression. The median LOS was around 10 days. The survival probability was 98.15% (95% CI: 90.34% to 99.67%) at Day 3 and fell to 0.0% at Day 35. Tumor stage, disease severity and multiple comorbidities were significant predictors of LOS (p < 0.05). Severity 2 and one comorbidity were not significant. Tumor stage 4 was significantly associated with LOS compared with the reference tumor category. Severity 3 was significantly different from the reference severity group, while Severity 2 was not significant. Two or three comorbidities were associated with a longer length of hospital stay, whereas one comorbidity was not significant. Age was also not significantly associated with LOS. The results indicate that tumor stage, disease severity and comorbidities are important factors associated with hospital LOS among breast cancer patients. The findings may help in identifying patients who are more likely to have longer hospital stays. This may support discharge planning and management of hospital resources. The Weibull AFT model was useful for examining the factors associated with LOS and provided interpretable estimates of hospital stay.