title: The hospital costs of stroke patients in Chinese island populations: an 11-year tendency analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The impact of stroke is devastating the life of patients, families, and even the communities. The cost of treatment; however, has the tendency of increasing nowadays, which has brought a heavy burden to patients and their families. Our study aims to collect the data of the hospital cost among stroke patients in Chinese island populations over the past decade and provide the scientific improvement for stroke.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrospectively collected the basic information and hospital costs of the stroke patients in Dalian Changhai Hospital from 2003 to 2013 using the Information Registration System of Inpatient.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The total cumulative hospital admissions for stroke in Dalian Changhai Hospital were 1367 and showed a rising tendency from 2003 to 2013. Our results illustrated that the annual cumulative hospital costs of stroke inpatients increased rapidly in the past 11 years (the average rise was 37.71% per year), and the mean hospital cost per admission was 1.66% higher than that before, when the mean length of hospital days showed a downward tendency. Medication cost was found to be the largest part in the overall hospital cost (as a high percentage of 73.94%); however, traditional Chinese medicine only occupied quite a small proportion in the medicines.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The hospital cost for stroke in Dalian Changhai County has brought an increasingly heavy economic burden to the local government and residents.
authors: Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Center of Evidence Based Medicine, Institute of Cardiovascular, The First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China.
authors: Xiaomei
authors: X
authors: Wu
authors: Department of Neurology, Dalian Municipal Central Hospital, Dalian, China.
authors: Safeng
authors: S
authors: Zou
authors: Center of Occupational Evaluation, Liaoning Academy of Safety Sciences, Shenyang, China; Research Center of Environment and Chronic Disease, School of Public Health, China Medical University, Shenyang, China.
authors: Bo
authors: B
authors: Zhu
authors: Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Center of Evidence Based Medicine, Institute of Cardiovascular, The First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China. Electronic address: jingpu56@163.com.
authors: Jingpu
authors: J
authors: Shi
mesh_terms: D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D062312:Islands / Q000453:epidemiology; D007902:Length of Stay; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D020521:Stroke / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*
keywords: Chinese island populations; Stroke; hospital cost; tendency analysis