OBJECTIVES There are relatively few large studies of seasonal variation in the occurrence of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). We investigated the seasonal variation in incidence rates of hospitalisation with stroke in patients from Denmark and New Zealand. DESIGN Cohort study. SETTING Nationwide hospital discharge data from Denmark and New Zealand. PARTICIPANTS 243 381 (m...

OBJECTIVE Acute heart failure syndrome (AHFS) is a major cause of hospitalisation and imparts a substantial burden on patients and healthcare systems. Tools to define risk of AHFS hospitalisation are lacking. METHODS A prospective cohort study (n=628) of patients with stable chronic heart failure (CHF) secondary to left ventricular systolic dysfunction was used to derive an AHFS prediction mo...

INTRODUCTION Substantial effort has been devoted for devising effective and safe interventions to reduce preventable hospital admissions in chronic disease patients. In rheumatoid arthritis (RA), identifying risk factors for admission has important health policy implications, but knowledge of which factors cause or prevent hospital admissions is currently lacking. We hypothesised that disease a...

OBJECTIVES Develop predictive models using an administrative healthcare database that provide information for Patient-Centred Medical Homes to proactively identify patients at risk of hospitalisation for conditions that may be impacted through improved patient care. DESIGN Retrospective healthcare utilisation analysis with multivariate logistic regression models. DATA A population-based lon...

AIMS To describe complications of varicella requiring hospitalisation in a defined population (canton of Bern) and to compare the hospitalisation rates for varicella with published data. METHODS Retrospective analysis of hospital records of patients less than 16 years of age admitted with complications of varicella to the hospitals serving this population (University Children's Hospital of Be...

QUESTION Does the distance covered during a 6-minute walk test predict risk of death or hospitalisation for cardiovascular reasons in men with stable heart failure over three years of follow-up? DESIGN Prospective observational study. PARTICIPANTS 243 men with stable systolic heart failure, with a mean age of 60 yr (SD 11) and left ventricular ejection fraction of 29% (SD 8). According to t...

BACKGROUND Susceptibility to exertional heat illness (EHI) is considered multifactorial in nature. The aims of this study were to (1) review traditional susceptibility factors identified in cases of EHI and (2) determine how they are related to risk of hospitalisation. METHODS Review of an electronic database of EHI reported in the British Army between 1 September 2007 and 31 December 2014. C...

This study was undertaken to determine the extent and nature of depressive symptoms exhibited by black South African children during hospitalisation for orthopaedic procedures. Social factors associated with the risk for depression, in response to hospitalisation, were also examined. Pre- and post-test assessments were conducted on a sample of 30 children, aged between 6 and 12 years. The asses...

OBJECTIVES To inform the provision of support to veterans by analysing hospital discharge data, thereby identifying which conditions show an excess risk, require specific management strategies and deserve further investigation. SETTING Tertiary level care, including all public and private New Zealand hospitals. PARTICIPANTS All New Zealand Vietnam veterans with service between 1964 and 1972...

Aim. To precisely estimate the effect of age on the risk of fracture hospitalisation among the Western Australia population over the life course. Methods. This population-based cohort study used hospital data on fractures for the period January 1991 to January 2013 among Western Australians born between 1915 and 1990. Results. The average incidence rates (per 10,000 person-years) of fracture ho...