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. 1996 Sep;45(3):264-8.

[Why are children hospitalized in Spain?]

[Article in Spanish]
A Sarría Santamera  1
Affiliations
  • PMID: 9019967

[Why are children hospitalized in Spain?]

[Article in Spanish]
A Sarría Santamera. An Esp Pediatr. 1996 Sep.

Abstract

Objective: Hospital services represent a significant amount of the overall health care devoted to the pediatric population. This work describes regional differences in Spanish pediatric hospital admissions.

Patients and methods: National, regional, age-specific and diagnostic-specific discharge rates were obtained from the 1987 Hospital Morbidity Survey. To assess regional variations, weighted coefficient of variations (WCV) were obtained.

Results: The overall national discharge rate was 60.45 discharges per 1000 children less than 15 years of age. The weighted coefficient of variation obtained for the sex and age adjusted discharge rates of the 10 more frequent diagnoses was highest for phimosis (56.13) and lowest for appendicitis (19.44).

Conclusions: Differences in supply and professional practice style have been recognized as causes for the variations in hospital utilization. Hospitalization of patients represents costs and risks. They are justified when scientific evidence shows that their suggested benefits overcome their inconveniences. The existence of this difference leads to suspect that non-clinical factors could be decisive in medical decisions.

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Comment in

  • [Inappropriate hospitalization: an indicator of quality of health care].
    González de Dios J, Mateos Hernández A, González Casado I. González de Dios J, et al. An Esp Pediatr. 1997 May;46(5):521-5. An Esp Pediatr. 1997. PMID: 9297414 Spanish. No abstract available.
  • [Hospitalization rate].
    Calvo Rigual F, Casanova Matutano C, Paricio Talayero JM. Calvo Rigual F, et al. An Esp Pediatr. 1997 Sep;47(3):334-5. An Esp Pediatr. 1997. PMID: 9499296 Spanish. No abstract available.
  • [Pediatric hospitalization rates in Spain].
    Casanova Matutano C, Peiró Pérez R, Barba Albós G, Salvador Vilalta X, Colomer Revuelta J, Torregrosa Bertet MJ. Casanova Matutano C, et al. An Esp Pediatr. 1997 Sep;47(3):335-6. An Esp Pediatr. 1997. PMID: 9499297 Spanish. No abstract available.

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