health
More children being hospitalized for hypertension
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted July 2, 2012
Hospital discharges for U.S. children ages 2-18 with hypertension nearly doubled from 1997 to 2006, climbing from 12,661 discharges to 24,602, according to a study published online June 18 in Hypertension.
The mean length of hospitalization for children with hypertension (8.1 days) was double that of children hospitalized for other illnesses (3.8 days), the study showed (link).
The total cost for pediatric hypertension-associated hospitalizations during the study period was $3.1 billion.Researchers examined hospital discharge records from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Kids’ Inpatient Database in 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2006. It is the only comprehensive, all-payer health care database for children in the U.S.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2012/07/02/hlbf0702.htm.
