• Haya Tabaza, FarhaRana AbuRA0000-0001-8298-4071Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Applied Science Private University, Amman, Jordan., Lobna Gharaibeh, Mohammad Alwahsh, and Oriana Awwad.
• Department of Biopharmaceutics and Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan.
• J Eval Clin Pract. 2025 Feb 1; 31 (1): e14308e14308.

BackgroundChronic respiratory disorders such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may deteriorate into acute exacerbations requiring hospitalization. Assessing the predictors of prolonged hospital stays could help identify potential interventions to reduce the burden on patients and healthcare systems.AimThis study aimed to identify the risk factors attributed to prolonged hospital stays among patients admitted with acute exacerbations of chronic respiratory disorders in Jordan.MethodsA retrospective cohort study was conducted by reviewing the demographic and clinical characteristics of hospitalized patients with asthma and COPD exacerbations between January 2017 and July 2021. The recorded variables were checked for their independence. Simple and stepwise multivariate linear regressions were then performed to identify variables associated significantly with a longer hospital length of stay (LOS).ResultsA total of 896 cases were evaluated. The mean ± SD stay was 5.66 ± 3.40 days, whereas the median (IQR) was 5.00 (4.00) days. Variables associated significantly with prolonged LOS in the multivariate analysis were female gender (β = 0.089, p = 0.011), pulmonary hypertension (β = 0.093, p = 0.004), allergic rhinitis (β = 0.086, p = 0.007), ICU admission (β = 0.096, p = 0.003), requirement for mechanical ventilation (β = 0.102, p = 0.002), higher total number of medications (β = 0.281, p < 0.001) and the number of exacerbation-related medications (β = 0.200, p < 0.001). However, smoking (β = -0.091, p = 0.008) was significantly associated with a shorter LOS.ConclusionsGender, pulmonary hypertension, allergic rhinitis, ICU admission, mechanical ventilation, the number of medications and smoking were significantly related to LOS. These findings emphasize the importance of patients' demographics and their clinical status in determining LOS, hence providing protective interventions to shorten it.© 2025 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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