Causes for hospitalizations at upazila health complexes in Bangladesh.
Morbidity and mortality data are important for planning and implementing healthcare strategies of a country. To understand the major causes for hospitalizations in rural Bangladesh, demographic and clinical data were collected from the hospital-records of five government-run rural health facilities (upazila health complexes) situated at different geographical regions of the country from January 1997 to December 2001. During this period, 75,598 hospital admissions in total were recorded, of which 54% were for male, and 46% were for female. Of all the admissions, diarrhoeal disease was the leading cause for hospitalization (25.1%), followed by injuries (17.7%), respiratory tract diseases (12.6%), diseases of the gastrointestinal tract (10.5%), obstetric and gynaecological causes (8.5%), and febrile illnesses (6.7%). A considerable proportion (8.3%) of the hospitalized patients remained undiagnosed. Despite the limitations of hospital-based data, this paper gives a reasonable insight of the important causes for hospitalizations in upazila health complexes that may guide the policy-makers in strengthening and prioritizing the healthcare needs at the upazila level in Bangladesh.
Ahmed
Sirajuddin
S
Public Health Sciences Division, ICDDR,B, GPO Box 128, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh. suahmed@icddrb.org
Siddique
A K
AK
Iqbal
Anwarul
A
Rahman
F K M Nurur
FK
Islam
Md Noor
MN
Sobhan
Md Arif
MA
Islam
Md Rafiqul
MR
Sack
R B
RB
D000375:Aging; D001459:Bangladesh; D015984:Causality; D005260:Female; D006292:Health Priorities; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006767:Hospitals, District / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records; D020380:Needs Assessment; D012040:Regional Health Planning; D012423:Rural Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019035:Rural Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
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