Impact of population ageing on the costs of hospitalisations for cardiovascular disease: a population-based data linkage study

Background

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the most costly disease in Australia. Measuring the impact of ageing on its costs is needed for planning future healthcare budget. The aim of this study was to measure the impact of changes in population age structure in Western Australia (WA) on the costs of hospitalisation for CVD.

Methods

All hospitalisation records for CVD occurring in WA in 1993/94 and 2003/04 inclusive were extracted from the WA Hospital Morbidity Data System (HMDS) via the WA Data Linkage System. Inflation adjusted hospitalisation costs using 2012 as the base year was assigned to all episodes of care using Australian Refined Diagnosis Related Group (AR-DRG) costing information. The component decomposition method was used to measure the contribution of ageing and other factors to the increase of hospitalisation costs for CVD.

Results

Between 1993/94 and 2003/04, population ageing contributed 23% and 30% respectively of the increase in CVD hospitalisation costs for men and women. The impact of ageing on hospitalisation costs was far greater for chronic conditions than acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and stroke.

Conclusions

Given the impact of ageing on hospitalisation costs, and the disparity between chronic and acute conditions, disease-specific factors should be considered in planning for future healthcare expenditure.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12913-014-0554-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Evaluation of compliance with the Tokyo Guidelines for the management of acute cholangitis based on the Japanese administrative database associated with the Diagnosis Procedure Combination system

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE

We aimed to evaluate compliance with the clinical practice guidelines for acute cholangitis (Tokyo Guidelines) using the Japanese administrative database associated with the Diagnosis Procedure Combination (DPC) system.

METHODS

We collected database data from 60,842 acute cholangitis patients, examining 10 recommendations in the Tokyo Guidelines. We counted how many recommendations had been complied with for every patient. The patient compliance score was defined as the rate of compliance with these recommendations (score 0 = 0% to score 10 = 100%). An aggregated patient compliance score was measured according to the severity of acute cholangitis. Severity was categorized as grade I (mild cholangitis; n = 49,630), grade II (moderate cholangitis; n = 10,444), and grade III (severe cholangitis; n = 768).

RESULTS

The mean patient compliance score was significantly higher for patients with grade III than for those with grades II and I (7.6 ± 2.1 vs. 6.5 ± 3.0 vs. 2.9 ± 0.9, p < 0.001, respectively). Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that the severity of acute cholangitis was the parameter most significantly associated with the patient compliance score. The standardized coefficient of grade III was higher than that of grade II (0.657 vs. 0.248, p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Compliance with the Tokyo Guidelines became higher in accordance with the severity of acute cholangitis.

Impact of hospital volume on clinical outcomes of endoscopic biliary drainage for acute cholangitis based on the Japanese administrative database associated with the diagnosis procedure combination system

BACKGROUND

We aimed to determine the relationship between hospital volume and the clinical outcomes of endoscopic biliary drainage for acute cholangitis, using the Japanese administrative database associated with the diagnosis procedure combination (DPC) system.

METHODS

A total of 8698 patients with endoscopic biliary drainage were referred to 654 hospitals. We corrected patients' data from the database to compare risk-adjusted length of stay (LOS) and drainage-related complications in relation to the hospital volume. Hospital volume was categorized into three groups based on number of cases during the study period: low-volume hospitals (LVHs; <16 cases), medium-volume hospitals (MVHs; 16-32 cases), and high-volume hospitals (HVHs; >32 cases).

RESULTS

Significant variation in mean LOS was observed between hospital volume categories (26.8 ± 22.6 days in LVHs vs. 23.3 ± 21.5 days in MVHs vs. 19.7 ± 17.2 days in HVHs, P < 0.001). There was a significant difference with regard to complications of endoscopic biliary drainage (5.6% in LVHs vs. 4.3% in MVHs vs. 3.2% in HVHs, P < 0.001). Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that hospital volume was most significantly associated with a decrease in risk-adjusted LOS. The standardized coefficient of MVHs was -0.155, whereas that of HVHs was -0.802. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that hospital volume decreased the relative risk of drainage-related complications. The odds ratio (OR) of MVHs was 0.764 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.604-0.965], whereas the OR of HVHs was 0.561 (95% CI, 0.434-0.725).

CONCLUSIONS

There was a significant association between hospital volume and the clinical outcomes of endoscopic biliary drainage for acute cholangitis.