Abstract: Objective To explore the changes and influencing factors of hospitalization expenditure among cerebral infarction patients from 2007 to 2010.Methods Retrospective analysis was used.The data on hospitalization expenditure for 5 319 cerebral infarction patients with New Cooperative Medical Scheme(NCMS)were extracted from NCMS information system in a county of Shandong province.Descriptive statistics and factor analysis were used to analyze different expenditure types.Results The average inpatient expenditure increased by 57.7%;medicine expenditure(63.23%) was the dominant part of the expenditure for all hospitals of different levels,followed by treatment(15.57%)and examination(12.28%).For the components of the medicine,the expenditure of western drug decreased from 78.56% in 2007 to 65.02% in 2010,while that of Chinese patent medicine increased from 20.96% in 2007 to 34.43% in 2010.Four factors were extracted by factor analysis,including "treatment,western medicine,examinations and materials" factor,Chinese patent medicine factor,Chinese herbs factor,and bed factor.Conclusion Western medicine,Chinese patent medicine, treatment and examination were four main components of the increase of hospitalization expenditure.Chinese patent medicine and examination were the items with higher increaed expenditure for hospitals at town level and western medicine for hospitals at county level and above.