title: The cost of injury: hospital charges for pregnant trauma patients, 1999 to 2003.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Traumatic injuries during pregnancy are the leading cause of nonobstetric maternal mortality. We aimed to determine hospital charges for trauma activations during pregnancy.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used the Illinois State Trauma Registry data from 1999 to 2003. Using STATA for bivariate and regression analyses, we compared total hospital costs for women more than 24 weeks pregnant with nonpregnant women.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Six hundred thirty-five pregnant women (2.4% of 26,806 female trauma patients) were admitted during the study period. In multivariate regression, pregnancy was associated with lower hospital charges; however, for any given length of stay, pregnancy increased hospital charges (α = $17,864.80, P = .001). Pregnancy also independently predicted increased length of stay for similar injury severity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  When controlling for injury severity, pregnancy independently predicted an increased duration of hospitalization and hospital charges. These findings have important implications for resource allocation and care of trauma in pregnancy.
authors: Department of Emergency Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, 676 North St Clair, Suite 650, Chicago, IL 60611, USA.
authors: Usha
authors: U
authors: Periyanayagam
authors: Department of Surgery, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, 676 North St Clair, Suite 650, Chicago, IL 60611, USA. Electronic address: mcrandall@northwestern.edu.
authors: Marie
authors: M
authors: Crandall
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D017722:Hospital Charges / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017721:Hospital Costs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007087:Illinois; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016014:Linear Models; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011247:Pregnancy; D012042:Registries; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000191:economics*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Charges; Cost; Hospital; Pregnancy; Trauma