Abstract   Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality, and is an important health economic problem. Since 1960, there has been an increase in mortality associated with COPD, especially in men. Acute exacerbations form a major component of the socioeconomic burden of COPD which mainly results in long-term hospitalization. Despite the hi...

With the growing number of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and hospitalization cases, the overall medical care cost elevates significantly in consequence. A total of 2458 hospitalizations, involving 1401 patients with IBD, were included from two large medical centers. Hospitalization costs and factors impacting cost changes were determined. Patients with IBD and frequency of hosp...

This study aimed to evaluate causative factors for prolonged hospitalization based on hospitalization status, type of hospital ward, and comorbidities, specifically diabetes mellitus and infectious diseases, in 20,876 patients hospitalized in Saga University Hospital from April 1, 2012, to February 28, 2015. Prolonged hospitalization was defined as hospital days exceeding period 3 in the diagno...

Clinical pathway (CP) is a medical management tool made by a group of medical specialists and specialized for certain diseases. It has been proved that CP was an efficient way to optimize the hospitalization management and control medical cost. In this paper, we focused on the effect of CP in the patients with acute complicated appendicitis via total duration of hospitalization, hospitalization...

BACKGROUND Lower respiratory infection (LRI) is the leading cause of hospitalization for nursing home residents, but hospitalization is costly and may cause complications. OBJECTIVE We sought to compare mortality and cost between episodes of LRI initially treated in the hospital versus the nursing home after controlling for illness severity and the probability of hospitalization. DESIGN Thi...

OBJECTIVE We examined the timing and number of days of hospitalization during the course of treatment, hospitalization effects on outcome, and predictors and moderators of the use of hospitalization in adolescents with anorexia nervosa (AN). METHOD Data used in this study were collected from 158 adolescents (ages 12 to 18 years of age) who met DSM-IVTR criteria for AN (exclusive of the amenor...

BACKGROUND Noncardiovascular (non-CV) comorbidities may contribute to hospitalizations in patients with heart failure (HF). We examined the incidence of mortality following hospitalization for cardiovascular (CV) versus non-CV reasons in the Candesartan in Heart Failure: Assessment of Reduction in Mortality and Morbidity (CHARM) Program. METHODS AND RESULTS First hospitalizations for CV or no...

OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis that hospitalization in old age is associated with subsequent cognitive decline. METHODS As part of a longitudinal population-based cohort study, 1,870 older residents of an urban community were interviewed at 3-year intervals for up to 12 years. The interview included a set of brief cognitive tests from which measures of global cognition, episodic memory, and...

BACKGROUND Street-involved youth who use illicit drugs are at high risk for health-related harms; however, the profile of youth at greatest risk of hospitalization has not been well described. We sought to characterize hospitalization among street-involved youth who use illicit drugs and identify the most frequent medical reasons for hospitalization among this population. METHODS From January...

BACKGROUND Air pollution is known to cause respiratory disease. Unlike motor vehicle sources, fuel-fired power plants are stationary. OBJECTIVE Using hospitalization data, we examined whether living near a fuel-fired power plant increases the likelihood of hospitalization for respiratory disease. METHODS Rates of hospitalization for asthma, acute respiratory infection (ARI), and chronic obs...