title: Socio-demographic and clinical profile of admissions to community hospitals in Singapore from 1996 to 2005: a descriptive study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Little data is available on community hospital admissions. We examined the differences between community hospitals and the annual trends in sociodemographic characteristics of all patient admissions in Singaporean community hospitals over a 10- year period from 1996 to 2005.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were manually extracted from medical records of 4 community hospitals existent in Singapore from 1996 to 2005. Nineteen thousand and three hundred and sixty patient records were examined. Chisquare test was used for univariate analysis of categorical variables by type of community hospitals. For annual trends, test for linear by linear association was used. ANOVA was used to generate beta coefficients for continuous variables.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean age of all patient admissions has increased from 72.8 years in 1996 to 74.8 years in 2005. The majority was Chinese (88.4%), and female (58.1%) and admissions were mainly for rehabilitation (88.0%). Almost one third had foreign domestic workers as primary caregivers and most (73.5%) were discharged to their own home. There were significant differences in socio-demographic profile of admissions between hospitals with one hospital having more patients with poor social support. Over the 10-year period, the geometric mean length of stay decreased from 29.7 days (95% CI, 6.4 to 138.0) to 26.7 days (95% CI, 7.5 to 94.2), and both mean admission and discharge Barthel Index scores increased from 41.0 (SD = 24.9) and 51.8 (SD = 30.0), respectively in 1996 to 48.4 (SD = 24.5) and 64.2 (SD = 27.3) respectively in 2005.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There are significant differences in socio-demographic characteristics and clinical profile of admissions between various community hospitals and across time. Understanding these differences and trends in admission profiles may help in projecting future healthcare service needs.
authors.affiliation: Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore, National University Health System, Singapore. Gerald_Koh@nuhs.edu.sg
authors.forename: Gerald C H
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Koh
authors.forename: Liang E N
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Wee
authors.forename: Nashia Ali
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Rizvi
authors.forename: Cynthia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cheong
authors.forename: Ngan Phoon
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: Fong
authors.forename: Kin Ming
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Boon Yeow
authors.initials: BY
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Menon
authors.forename: Chye Hua
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Ee
authors.forename: Kok Keng
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Petrella
authors.forename: Amardeep
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Thind
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Koh
authors.forename: Kee Seng
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Chia
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003933:Diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006764:Hospitals, Community; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends*; D012846:Singapore; D012923:Social Class