Trend in direct economic burden of injuries among adolescents

ObjectiveTo explore the type of injury and the change trend of direct economic burden among adolescent injury inpatients and to provide scientific basis for making injury intervention measure.MethodsAdolescent injury hospitalization records in two hospitals from 1994-2008 were collected and analyzed.ResultsAmong the 3 407 adolescent injury inpatients,the ratio of traffic accident,violence,natural environment accident,accidental fall,and other injuries was 28.12%,19.90%,16.11%,24.04%,and 11.83%,respectively,with significant differences among different years (H=10.90,P<0.05).From 1994-2008,the growth rate of hospitalization costs were 9.50%,13.70%,11.50%, 15.43%,and 13.58% and the average grow th rate of daily hospitalization costs were 13.96%,16.16%,14.37%,14.64%,and 19.17%,respectively,for traffic accident,violence,natural environment accident,accidental fall,and other injuries.The cost of medical service,medicine,examination,treatment,operation,and other items accounted for 3.87%, 32.44%,11.24%,15.50%,18.37%,and 18.58% of the total cost,with the growth rates of 16.14%,12.87%,16.81%,3.16%,26.65%,and 10.54%,respectively.ConclusionThe direct economic burden of adolescent injury hospitalization was heavy and increased year by year.The economic burden comes mainly from costs of medicine and surgery with a rapid increase in costs of surgery and examination.