Nationwide trends in stroke hospitalization over the past decade

ABSTRACT

Stroke is a major health problem in Korea. It is the second leading cause of death, and many stroke survivors are permanently disabled. Despite the high economic and social burden of stroke, little is known about utilization of health care services for sufficiently long follow-up periods. This study assessed nationwide patterns of hospitalization for inpatients with stroke from 2000 to 2010, using national health insurance claim data. Overall, during these 10 years, the number of stroke hospitalizations grew by a compound annual growth rate of 6.4%, and health care expenditures showed continued growth at a faster rate of 13.2%. These growth trends were also consistent in different types of hospitals as well as different stroke subtypes. However, the utilization patterns of inpatient services were different across hospital types, especially in lengths of hospital stay (LOS), health care expenditures, and proportions of stroke subtypes. Concerning the proportion of patients in different types of hospitals, there were sharp increases in the use of long-term care hospitals from 5% to 20% of all stroke patients while the proportion has decreased from 49% to 39% in general hospitals. The LOS was also different across hospital types The longest average LOS of 49 days was shown in long-term care hospitals, while the tertiary hospitals showed the shortest LOS of 15. In conclusion, despite a continuing decline in stroke mortality due to improved survival, the burden of disease due to stroke is increasing. To manage this issue, monitoring the trends of health care expenditures in detail, as well as the incidence and mortality rates, would be useful. These efforts will result in understanding the factors contributing to the increasing burden and in identifying the efficient and effective utilization of limited health care resources.