title: Temporal trend of newly diagnosed incidence, medical utilization, and costs for pediatric urolithiasis, 1998-2007: a nationwide population-based study in Taiwan.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the trends of newly diagnosed incidence, medical utilization, and medical costs for pediatric urolithiasis in Taiwan.
  
  
  METHODS
  The present study uses the National Health Insurance Research Database, which contains the data of all medical benefit claims from the individuals enrolled in the national and single-payer insurance program in Taiwan. The National Health Insurance covered 22,717,053 enrollees, nearly 99% of Taiwan's population. Our analysis includes all subjects aged <18 years with a primary diagnosis of urolithiasis. We analyzed the temporal trend for annual newly diagnosed incidence, medical care visits, and medical costs for pediatric urolithiasis from 1998 to 2007.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 1474 patients aged <18 years with newly diagnosed urolithiasis were identified, including 719 (48.8%) boys and 755 (51.2%) girls. The overall newly diagnosed rate of urolithiasis in pediatric population was 0.038% in 2007. The peak age stratum of urolithiasis occurrence in 2007 was 15-18 years. The trend of annual newly diagnosed incidences for boys, girls, and all children declined from 1998 to 2007. Furthermore, there were declining trends both in medical costs and annual medical care visits during the study period.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This is the first nationwide population-based study to indicate the declining trends in newly diagnosed rate, medical care visits, and medical costs for pediatric urolithiasis. These findings help to quantify and establish the burden of pediatric urolithiasis. These findings help to quantify and establish the burden of medical care for pediatric urolithiasis and to further refine the medical policy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, National Taiwan University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Urology, Ten-Chan Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yuan-Hung
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Pong
authors.affiliation: Institute of Health and Welfare Policy, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Wei-Yi
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, National Taiwan University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yu-Chuan
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Ten-Chan Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Vincent F S
authors.initials: VF
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.affiliation: Institute of Health and Welfare Policy, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yu-Fen
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, National Taiwan University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Hong-Chiang
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, National Taiwan University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: I-Ni
authors.initials: IN
authors.lastname: Chiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, National Taiwan University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. Electronic address: khhuang123@ntu.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Kuo-How
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D005260:Female; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D013997:Time Factors; D052878:Urolithiasis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy