Su FY, Fu ML, Zhao QH, Huang HH, Luo D, Xiao MZ. Analysis of hospitalization costs related to fall injuries in elderly patients. World J Clin Cases 2021; 9(6): 1271-1283 [PMID: 33644194 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i6.1271]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Ming-Zhao Xiao, MM, Chief Doctor, Professor, Department of Urology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, No. 1 Youyi Road, Yuzhong District, Chongqing 400016, China. xmz.2004@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Geriatrics & Gerontology
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Cases. Feb 26, 2021; 9(6): 1271-1283 Published online Feb 26, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i6.1271
Analysis of hospitalization costs related to fall injuries in elderly patients
Fei-Yue Su, Mei-Ling Fu, Qing-Hua Zhao, Huan-Huan Huang, Di Luo, Ming-Zhao Xiao
Fei-Yue Su, Di Luo, Ming-Zhao Xiao, Department of Urology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China
Mei-Ling Fu, Department of Medical Insurance, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China
Qing-Hua Zhao, Huan-Huan Huang, Department of Nursing, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China
Author contributions: Su FY, Fu ML and Xiao MZ designed the study; Su FY, Huang HH and Luo D performed the experiments and collected the data; Su FY analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; and Zhao QH and Xiao MZ reviewed and edited the manuscript; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported byThe National Key Research and Development Project, No. 2020YFC2005900.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University (Approval No. 2019-288).
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patients for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: The data underlying this article were provided by The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University and the Jinshan Branch of The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University under licence. Data will be shared on request to the corresponding author with permission of The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University and the Jinshan Branch of The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ming-Zhao Xiao, MM, Chief Doctor, Professor, Department of Urology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, No. 1 Youyi Road, Yuzhong District, Chongqing 400016, China. xmz.2004@163.com
Received: August 13, 2020 Peer-review started: August 13, 2020 First decision: November 23, 2020 Revised: December 3, 2020 Accepted: December 16, 2020 Article in press: December 16, 2020 Published online: February 26, 2021 Processing time: 177 Days and 1.1 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
With the aging world population the incidence of falls has intensified and hospitalization costs are increasing. Falls are one type of event studied in the health economics of patient safety.
Research motivation
Many developed countries have conducted research on fall-related hospitalization costs. However, China, a developing country, still lacks large-sample studies.
Research objectives
The aim of the study was to investigate the composition and factors related to the hospitalization costs of fall-related injuries in elderly inpatients and establish factor-based, cost-related groupings to provide a basis for the rational economic control of hospitalization costs.
Research methods
Quantile regression (QR) analysis was used to identify the factors related to fall-related hospitalization costs. A decision tree model based on the chi-squared automatic interaction detector algorithm for hospitalization cost grouping was built by setting the factors in the regression results as separation nodes.
Research results
The total hospitalization cost of fall-related injuries in the elderly patients investigated was 180479203.03 RMB. The cost grouping model was established based on the QR results, and patient age, length of stay, operation type, wound position and wound type were the most important influencing factors in the model.
Research conclusions
Our grouping model of hospitalization costs clearly reflects the key factors affecting hospitalization costs and is meaningful for strengthening the reasonable control of these costs.
Research perspectives
This was a retrospective study; hence, a prospective large-scale multicenter study is still required.
