title: Recent trends in pediatric hospitalization in New York state.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe changing rates of disorders associated with child hospitalization.
  
  
  METHODS
  Trends for the 100 diagnosis related groups (DRGs) with the largest number of hospitalizations (0-14 years) were analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Children were hospitalized at an average annual rate of 35 per 1000 age-specific population during 1996 to 2002. The hospitalization rate decreased by 2.3% per year. The top 100 DRGs accounted for 90% of all 949,376 child hospitalizations. Hospitalization for mental illness increased by 5.5% per year, accounting for more than 4% of all child hospitalizations in 2002. Ambulatory care-sensitive medical conditions (asthma, gastrointestinal disorders, pneumonia, seizures) continue to be leading causes of hospitalization, and they are declining no faster than the overall rate. DRGs with a significantly faster rate of decline than the overall trend included surgical procedures for which inpatient care is often unnecessary (-12.3%/year, accounting for 11% of the overall decline) trauma-related diagnoses (-4.4%/year, accounting for 7% of the overall decline), and HIV-related conditions (-31.7%/year, accounting for 3% of the overall decline).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The rising rate of hospitalization associated with child mental illness may represent a clinically important trend. Rates of hospitalization for ambulatory care-sensitive conditions have not declined substantially despite the availability of evidence-based strategies to avoid serious illness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York 13210, USA. kanterr@upstate.edu
authors.forename: Robert K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Kanter
authors.forename: John R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Moran
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016208:Databases, Factual; D003953:Diagnosis-Related Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D009518:New York; D012040:Regional Health Planning; D012189:Retrospective Studies