Hospital morbidity spectrum among children 0-17 years in Romania

Abstract

CONTEXT: At the hospitals level, a large volume of resources is consumed, and efficient allocation of resources must be done based on valid and scientific evidence. As these resources are complex and vary for different categories of the population, the analysis of needs by age groups can support decision-making and the development of appropriate policies.

The purpose of this analysis was to identify patterns of hospital morbidity among children 0-17 years and to provide evidence that can support the decision making process in the field of efficient allocation of resources.

METHOD: Cross-sectional study performed on data on hospital activity at patient level, in the year 2019. The DRGNational 2019 database was interrogated and data on the level of hospital morbidity in children 0-17 years were extracted. Indicators were calculated, for measuring the level of hospital activity, such as: number of hospitalization episodes, proportion of hospitalizations in total hospitalizations, density of hospitalizations among children. Data were analyzed by age categories 0-1 years, 1-4 years, 5-9 years, 10-14 years and 15-17 years; data were aggregated at national level, and for certain aspects, the data were also aggregated at county level.

RESULTS: The analysis of the spectrum of pathologies highlights major differences between the age groups within the category of children 0-17 years, both in terms of their frequency in the top of pathologies for each major age category and in terms of their proportion of total hospitalizations.

The spectrum of pathologies among children 0-17 years old hospitalized in Romanian hospitals is dominated by respiratory and digestive diseases, parasitic diseases and ENT diseases, and for each age group there are specificities of the hospitalization model.

CONCLUSIONS: The evidence from this study shows that there are large variations between pediatric hospital morbidity models identified, and these variations require in-depth analysis, on each population segment, in order to provide valid evidence to support decisions on efficient allocation of hospital resources in territorial profile.