ABSTRACT
The readmission is admission of a patient in hospital after he/she is discharged in a specific period. The prevalence of readmission in patients with congestive heart failure is more than other chronic diseases, and within 3-6 months after discharge in these patients, it is 10-50%. This study was conducted to determine the socioeconomic factors affecting the readmission of patients with congestive heart failure who were admitted in cardiology wards of Shaheed Beheshti University of Medical Sciences Hospitals in 2008. In this descriptive study, 110 male and female patients with congestive heart failure were selected with quota purposive sampling method, and were divided into two groups based on their admission background in the last 6 months prior to study onset. Data were collected by a questionnaire from the patients and referring to their files, and they were analyzed by deductive statistical tests. 61.8% of patients were readmitted to the hospital during the last 6 months ending to study onset; and economic problems, lifestyle and low income level affected the readmission rate of patients. This study confirms that socioeconomic factors, which some of them are amenable to change, dramatically increase the risk for multiple hospital readmissions among patients with CHF; and it advises that more attention to effective causes of its prevalence are needed