BACKGROUND Acute lower respiratory infections (ALRIs) are leading causes of hospitalisation in children. Birth defects occur in 5% of live births in Western Australia (WA). The association between birth defects and ALRI hospitalisation is unknown. METHODS We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 245,249 singleton births in WA (1996-2005). Population-based hospitalisation data were linked ...

The aim of the present study was to evaluate, among older persons, the association between respiratory impairment and hospitalisation for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), based on spirometric Z-scores, i.e. the LMS (lambda, mu, sigma) method, and a competing risk approach. Using data on 3,563 white participants aged 65-80 yrs (from the Cardiovascular Health Study) we evaluated the ...

Risk factors: Time since most recent psychiatric hospitalisation, main diagnosis at recent hospitalisation, length of recent hospitalisation, total number of psychiatric admissions. Conditional logistic regression was used to assess risk factors, and calculations were adjusted for income, area of residence, and marital status in year before suicide, as well as for other risk factors analysed. O...

BACKGROUND Owing to detrimental hazards and substantial healthcare burden and costs, hospitalisation of older people has become a major focus. Frailty has increasingly been recognised as an important predictor of hospitalisation. This study aims to identify studies on physical frailty as a predictor of hospitalisation risks and to pool the risk estimates among community-dwelling older people. ...

AIMS To investigate the rates and risk of hospitalisations in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) mellitus in England. METHODS This retrospective population-based cohort study used computerised records from the General Practice Research Database linked to Hospital Episode Statistics data in England. Patients with T2D from January 2006 to December 2010 were selected. Primary outcome measures w...

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...

BACKGROUND General practitioners (GPs) are often the first to assess mental health difficulties after acute coronary syndrome (ACS). AIMS To determine whether GPs observed an increase in mental health difficulties one-year post-hospitalisation for ACS. METHODS Postal survey. RESULTS GPs rated patients (n = 442) as having probable (GP assessed 10%) or definite (formally assessed 7%) mental...

OBJECTIVE To examine if the hospitalisation trends of liver cirrhosis are changing with the changes of risk factors of the disease in China. DESIGN Secondary analysis of hospitalisation records in the 31 top-ranking hospitals in Beijing. RESULTS Between 2006 and 2010, hospitalisation from viral hepatitis cirrhosis (VHC) decreased by 10% (95% CI=5-14%, p<0.001), but non-viral hepatitis cirrh...

Previous studies have provided conflicting evidence as to the possible benefits of inhaled corticosteroids in the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Using the Saskatchewan healthcare databases subjects were identified who were aged > or = 55 yrs, initiating regular treatment for COPD but without any prior treatment for asthma. In the current nested case-control analysis,...