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Hospital usage by patients withhypopituitarism
Growth Hormone & IGF Research 2001, S u p p l e m e n t A, S132-S135
Pituitary insufficiency
Hospital usage by patients with hypopituitarism A. Ogunko, C. Morgan, H. Lane, L. M. Evans, M. F. Scanlon and J. S. Davies Departmentof Medicine,Universityof Wales Collegeof Medicine,Cardiff,UK
Aims: To estimate hospital usage by patients with hypopituitarism. Patients and Methods: The study population comprised the resident population of Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan, UK (population, 434,000). Data for all inpatient admissions (1991-7) and outpatient appointments (1991-6) were available. These data underwent a process of record linkage to identify records relating to individual patients and to identify patients with a diagnosis of hypopituitarism. Linkage used probabilistic algorithms based on partial identifiers (name, sex, date of birth, postcode and address). The discriminating power of each item was calculated and weighted for whether the identifier was common or comparatively rare. A composite matching score was then calculated. Patients with hypopituitarism were identified from two sources: (1) inclusion on the hypopituitary clinic database; (2) inpatient admissions coded for hypopituitarism in routine inpatient data. Results: We identified 141 patients with hypopituitarism who were alive on 1 January 1996. This represents a prevalence of
1096-6374/01/0AS 132+04 $35.00/0
34 per 100,000 people. Patients with hypopituitarism accounted for 597 admissions over the 7-year study period, representing a standardized admission ratio of 3.37 (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.01-3.74): 4.29 (95% CI, 3.83-4.75) for males and 2.13 (95% CI, 1.88-2.37) for females. Of these admissions, 98 (16.4%) were for primary diagnoses of hypopituitarism, 92 (15.4%) were for secondary diagnoses of hypopituitarism and 407 (68.2%) were for unrelated diagnoses. The standardized admission ratio for unrelated admissions was 2.60 (95% CI, 2.25-2.96) for males and 1.99 (1.38-1.82) for females. Patients with hypopituitarism had a mean stay in hospital of 5.6 days, compared with a mean of 4.9 days in patients without hypopituitarism. Patients with hypopituitarism accounted for 1790 (0.14%) outpatient appointments, representing an age-standardized admission ratio of 2.95 (95% CI, 2.81-3.09). Conclusions: Patients with hypopituitarism utilize excessive health services in comparison with patients without hypopituitarism. This excessive usage by patients remains even after the exclusion of activity directly related to their condition.
© 2001 Harcourt PuNishers Ltd
Pituitary insufficiency
Hospital usage by patients with hypopituitarism A. Ogunko, C. Morgan, H. Lane, L. M. Evans, M. F. Scanlon and J. S. Davies Departmentof Medicine,Universityof Wales Collegeof Medicine,Cardiff,UK
Aims: To estimate hospital usage by patients with hypopituitarism. Patients and Methods: The study population comprised the resident population of Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan, UK (population, 434,000). Data for all inpatient admissions (1991-7) and outpatient appointments (1991-6) were available. These data underwent a process of record linkage to identify records relating to individual patients and to identify patients with a diagnosis of hypopituitarism. Linkage used probabilistic algorithms based on partial identifiers (name, sex, date of birth, postcode and address). The discriminating power of each item was calculated and weighted for whether the identifier was common or comparatively rare. A composite matching score was then calculated. Patients with hypopituitarism were identified from two sources: (1) inclusion on the hypopituitary clinic database; (2) inpatient admissions coded for hypopituitarism in routine inpatient data. Results: We identified 141 patients with hypopituitarism who were alive on 1 January 1996. This represents a prevalence of
1096-6374/01/0AS 132+04 $35.00/0
34 per 100,000 people. Patients with hypopituitarism accounted for 597 admissions over the 7-year study period, representing a standardized admission ratio of 3.37 (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.01-3.74): 4.29 (95% CI, 3.83-4.75) for males and 2.13 (95% CI, 1.88-2.37) for females. Of these admissions, 98 (16.4%) were for primary diagnoses of hypopituitarism, 92 (15.4%) were for secondary diagnoses of hypopituitarism and 407 (68.2%) were for unrelated diagnoses. The standardized admission ratio for unrelated admissions was 2.60 (95% CI, 2.25-2.96) for males and 1.99 (1.38-1.82) for females. Patients with hypopituitarism had a mean stay in hospital of 5.6 days, compared with a mean of 4.9 days in patients without hypopituitarism. Patients with hypopituitarism accounted for 1790 (0.14%) outpatient appointments, representing an age-standardized admission ratio of 2.95 (95% CI, 2.81-3.09). Conclusions: Patients with hypopituitarism utilize excessive health services in comparison with patients without hypopituitarism. This excessive usage by patients remains even after the exclusion of activity directly related to their condition.
© 2001 Harcourt PuNishers Ltd