[Patterns of hospitalization and nonhospitalization of the elderly based on individual data of total number of days hospitalized and frequency of hospitalization in one year].
With the aim of developing a method to determine the trends in the time spent by elderly at home or in the hospital, elderly living in a municipality of Hokkaido were classified into four groups according to the number of days spent at home or in the hospital in one year. The classification was based on individual data of the number of days hospitalized in one year obtained from health insurance records. The four groups were: "no hospitalization", "short hospitalization" (< or = 180 days in one year), "long hospitalization" (> 180 days in one year), and "continuous hospitalization". The number of subjects used in this study was 1,302 (532 men and 770 women) in 1992, and 1,345 (551 men and 794 women) in 1993. The findings were as follows: (the two figures in parentheses are the percentages for 1992 and 1993, respectively) 1) The percentage of "no hospitalization" was the highest (66%, 67%), followed by "short hospitalization" (24%, 25%), "continuous hospitalization" (6%, 4%), and "long hospitalization" (4%, 5%). There were no significant differences in the group percentages between 1992 and 1993. There were also no significant differences in the group percentages for men or women between 1992 and 1993. 2) In both years, there was a lower percentage of "short hospitalization", and a higher percentage of "long hospitalization" and "continuous hospitalization" among women than men. There was no difference in the percentage of "no hospitalization" between sexes. 3) In both years, about 70% of elderly people who had been hospitalized were only hospitalized once in the year. However, in the "long hospitalization" group, more than half of the people had been hospitalized two or more times in one year. This classification method is thought to be useful for a longitudinal study of hospitalization and nonhospitalization trends among the elderly in one community.
Miyama
T
T
Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, School of Nursing & Social Services, Department of Community Health Nursing.
Mikuni
K
K
Kuso
Y
Y
Maruyama
R
R
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000639:trends*; D006701:Home Nursing / Q000639:trends*; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D013222:State Medicine