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Child birth, mental illness top reasons behind adolescent hospitalizations

In Texas, mental diseases and disorders and pregnancy and childbirth accounted for the majority of hospitalizations among children aged 10 to 14 years and adolescents aged 15 to 17 years, respectively, according to recently published data.

To assess pediatric hospitalization trends in Texas from 2004 through 2010, Christopher Greeley, MD, MS, Center for Clinical Research and Evidence Based Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and colleagues analyzed data from the Hospital Inpatient Discharge Public Use Data File.

Christopher Greeley

Results demonstrated that during the study period, there were more than 591,000 pediatric hospitalizations annually. Overall, neonatal patients accounted for the majority of hospitalizations at 64.4%.

The most common reason for hospitalization among children aged 1 month to 10 years was respiratory illness (31.1%), resulting in annual costs of $91.23 million.

For children aged 10 to 14 years, the most common reason for hospitalization was mental illness (30.5%), costing $51.52 million annually. An increase of 2.5% was seen in mental illness diagnoses over the study period.

Pregnancy and childbirth was the most common reason for hospitalization among adolescents (39.6%) aged 15-17 years, costing $72.35 million annually. Mental illness was the second most common reason at 21%.

The researchers noted that the results from this study could be due to several different reasons. The increase in mental health hospitalizations could be due to patients not having accessible outpatient mental health services, or because of improvement in mental disease surveillance and recognition.

While teen pregnancy rates are high in Texas compared with the national average, the researchers theorized that this may be due to the lack of a coordinated approach to pregnancy prevention.

“Because many health care providers and networks contend with an ever-changing financial landscape, our data may provide a better understanding of the scope, and future disease burdens, of pediatric hospitalizations to better inform policy and practice,” Greeley and colleagues concluded. – by Casey Hower

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.