© 1997 Oxford University Press
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Hospital discharges for pneumonia in Finland between 1972 and 1993 in the population aged 65 years or over
1Department of Public Health Science and General Practice, University of Oulu Aapistie I, FIN-90220 Oulu, Finland
2National Public Health Institute, Oulu Department Oulu, Finland
3Unrt of General Practice, Oulu University Hospital Oulu, Finland
Address correspondence to: P Säynäjäkangas. Fax: (+ 358) 8 5375661
Aim: to describe the use of hospital services by Finnish adults aged 65 or over with pneumonia from 1972 to 1993-Material and methods: the study was based on nation-wide hospital discharge records. Patients in hospital for over 150 days were excluded. The number of persons aged 65 or over was 458 156 in 1972 and 707 341 in 1993. Results: pneumonia caused 237 330 periods of hospital treatment and a total of 3 826 986 hospitalization days in elderly people during the 22-year period. Annual hospital treatment periods increased from 155 to 23.9 per 1000 of population aged 65 years or over within this interval. The average annual change in the age-adjusted rate of hospital admissions for pneumonia was 1.45% [95% confidence interval (CD 103 to 1.87] for males and 0.83% (95% CI 0.39 to 1.28) for females. The increase was highest in the oldest male group, those aged 85 years or over. In 1972 the number of hospitalization days recorded was 126 690 (277 per 1000) and in 1993 it was 242 638 (343 per 1000), implying an absolute increase of 91.5%. However, the average annual change in the age-adjusted rate of hospitalization days for pneumonia showed a decrease of 0.62% (95% CI 1.04 to 0.19).
Conclusion: the recorded increase in the use of hospital services by elderly patients with pneumonia, combined with the current increase in size of the elderly population, suggests that the prevention and treatment of pneumonia in this sector of the population will pose a challenge for the health service in the future.
Keywords: hospital admissions, length of stay, old age, pneumonia
Received November 7, 1996;
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