Determinants of Hospital Length of Stay Among Trauma Patients in Sudan: A Retrospective Study (2009–2014)

Background: Hospital length of stay (LOS) is a critical indicator of healthcare efficiency and resource utilization. Understanding the factors influencing LOS among trauma patients can help improve hospital management, reduce costs, and enhance patient outcomes. Objective: This study aimed to assess LOS and identify key determinants influencing prolonged hospitalization at El-Obeid Teaching Hospital, Sudan. Methods: This retrospective observational study was conducted among trauma patients at El-Obeid Teaching Hospital in Sudan. All data of trauma patients admitted between 2009 and 2014 were collected. A structured data collection tool was used to collect data from patient charts that include demographic characteristics (i.e., age, gender) and clinical characteristics such as diagnosis, admission source, mechanism of trauma, type of intervention, and duration of hospital stay. All statistical data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 (IBM, SPSS Inc., USA). Results: A total of 322 trauma patients were reviewed and analyzed. The patients' mean age was 31.1 years. Male patients were prevalent (74.8%). Admission due to an accident was common (84.2%), and fracture was the most commonly diagnosed type of trauma (44.4%). The prevalence of patients with prolonged LOS (≥7 days) was 47.8%. Results suggest that increasing age, patients with fractures, hospital admission due to road traffic accidents (RTAs), and patients who underwent surgery were associated with increasing duration of hospital stay. In multivariate regression analysis, increasing age and surgical procedure were identified as the significant independent risk factors for prolonged LOS. Conclusion: Nearly half of trauma patients had hospital admission for seven days or more. Younger patients who were admitted due to RTA and did not undergo surgical intervention were more likely to have a shorter LOS. Further larger studies are required to provide more insights about the hospital admission duration of trauma patients and the factors that influence it in our region.