title: Preliminary report on admission profiles for children under 5 years old in Taiwan: disparities between 2000 and 2009.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Data on hospital admissions for children under 5 years old, concerning the admission rate, leading diagnoses, categories of disease, average hospitalization days, costs and between-year differences are scarce. Our study aims to investigate such admission profiles.
  
  
  METHODS
  Five percent of admission data for children under 5 years old in 2000 and 2009 was collected from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. We calculated the admission rate in regards to total admission, the patients' gender, the ten leading diagnoses, the ten most systemic common categories of disease, and the average hospitalization days and costs. The differences of the rates between 2000 and 2009 were evaluated by incidence rate ratios (IRR).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The admission rate per thousand children (population) was higher in 2009 (172.9) than 2000 (153.1). The ten most common systemic categories of disease were similar in both years. Furthermore, it was observed that the hospitalization days decreased by 3.7% in 2009, while medical expenditures increased by 10.9%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Efforts should be made to decrease the admission rate and hospitalization days in Taiwan to the levels of well-developed countries. Our data may serve as baseline data for future evaluations of child morbidity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Min-Sho
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Ku
authors.forename: Ko-Huang
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Lue
authors.forename: Shiuan-Shinn
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Hai-Lun
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D002673:Child, Hospitalized / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013624:Taiwan