New Emergency Department Report

June 29, 2007

Released today. Some of the highlights

During 2005, an estimated 115.3 million visits were made to hospital EDs, about 39.6 visits per 100 persons. This represents on average roughly 30,000 visits per ED in 2005, a 31 percent increase over 1995 (23,000). Visit rates have shown an increasing trend since 1995 for persons 22–49 years of age, 50–64 years of age, and 65 years of age and over. In 2005, about 0.5 million (0.4 percent) of visits were made by homeless individuals. Nearly 18 million patients arrived by ambulance (15.5 percent). At 1.9 percent of visits, the patient had been discharged from the hospital within the previous 7 days. Abdominal pain, chest pain, fever, and cough were the leading patient complaints, accounting for nearly one-fifth of all visits. Abdominal pain was the leading illness-related diagnosis at ED visits. There were an estimated 41.9 million injury-related visits or 14.4 visits per 100 persons.

Leave a Comment » | ambulatory care, emergency department, emergency room, health insurance, injury, National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, National Center for Health Statistics, National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey | Permalink
Posted by billcrews

New Ambulatory Care Report

June 29, 2007

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today issued a new report, “Ambulatory Medical Care Utilization Estimates for 2005,” which contains information on patient visits to emergency departments, outpatient clinics, and physician offices.

Highlights of the report:

There were over 1.2 billion patient visits to physician offices, hospital outpatient clinics, and emergency rooms in 2005. Over the past decade, rates of visits per population increased for all types of health care settings studied.

In the emergency department, the visit rate for patients with no insurance was about twice that of those with private insurance.

Conversely, patient visits to physician offices were higher for individuals with private health insurance compared with uninsured persons.

Over 29 percent of all ambulatory care visits were for chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes, and one in four were for preventive care, including check-ups, prenatal care, and post-surgical care.

There were 2.4 billion medications prescribed or administered at these visits.

Leave a Comment » | ambulatory care, National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, National Center for Health Statistics, uninsured | Permalink
Posted by billcrews

Deaths from HIV/AIDS

June 29, 2007

We had a question about the number of persons in the United States who die from HIV/AIDS.

Mortality data indicate that in 2004 5,608 whites (rate of 2.4 per 100,000), 7271 blacks (18.8 per 100,000), and 184 persons of other races (rate of 1.1 per 100,000) died of HIV/AIDS.

You can do your own analysis by year at CDC’s public access WONDER database (select ICD 10 codes B20-B24 in section 4) or you can quickly determine where HIV/AIDS ranks in the CDC’s WISQARS Leading Cause of Death Report.

Leave a Comment » | AIDS, Deaths, HIV, Vital Statistics System, WISQARS, WONDER | Permalink
Posted by billcrews

More On Drownings

June 27, 2007

As a follow up to our post on drownings we’re providing month-by-month data by race, sex, and type of drowning. This is an example of the type of data provided by the National Center for Health Statistics’s National Vital Statistics System.

Accident to watercraft causing drowning and submersion

Water‑transport‑related drowning and submersion without accident to watercraft

Drowning and submersion while in bathtub

Drowning and submersion following fall into bathtub

Drowning and submersion while in swimming pool

Drowning and submersion following fall into swimming pool

Drowning and submersion while in natural water

Drowning and submersion following fall into natural water

Other specified drowning and submersion

Unspecified drowning and submersion

Leave a Comment » | Deaths, drowning, injury, National Center for Health Statistics, summer injury, Vital Statistics System | Permalink
Posted by billcrews

Chronic Kidney Disease

June 27, 2007

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publication Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report:

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a serious condition associated with premature mortality, decreased quality of life, and increased health-care expenditures. Untreated CKD can result in end-stage renal disease and necessitate dialysis or kidney transplantation. Risk factors for CKD include cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, and obesity (1–3). To estimate the prevalence of CKD in the United States (overall and by health risk factors and other characteristics), CDC analyzed the most recent data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

About 16.8% of the US population aged 20 and older suffer from this condition. Among adults with diabetes that number is 40.2%.

Leave a Comment » | chronic kidney disease, CKD, diabetes, MMWR, NHANES | Permalink
Posted by billcrews

Type 1 Diabetes

June 27, 2007

Yesterday the Journal of the American Medical Association published an article entitled Incidence of Diabetes in Youth in the United States. From the JAMA press release:

Non-Hispanic white youth have the highest rate of diabetes of all racial/ethnic groups for children in the U.S., with type 1 being the predominant kind of diabetes among youth, according to a study in the June 27 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on chronic diseases of children.

[…]

For children age 0 to 4 years and 5 to 9 years, most DM was type 1, regardless of race/ethnicity. The incidence of type 1 DM was highest among non-Hispanic white children, and lowest among American Indian and Asian-Pacific Islander children. Similarly, for older youth (10-14 years and 15-19 years), the incidence of type 1 DM was highest among non-Hispanic white children, followed by African American and Hispanic youth.

“…taken together [with other studies], these data suggest that the incidence of type 1 DM may be increasing in the United States, consistent with worldwide trends,” the authors write. “We estimate that the annual number of newly diagnosed youth with type 1 DM in the United States is approximately 15,000.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a Comment » | children, Deaths, diabetes, JAMA, juvenile, National Health Interview Survey, NHANES, type 1, type 2, Vital Statistics System | Permalink
Posted by billcrews

Intimate Partner Violence

June 26, 2007

The sad case of the murder of 26 year old Jessie Davis has gained national media attention.

Though the National Center for Health Statistics tracks deaths, and as a subset of that homicides, the feeder document for the National Vital Statistics System, in this case the death certificate, does not allow us to identify the number of persons murdered by intimate partners.

Our parent agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has done some research into the subject. In March 2005, three researchers, Jeani Chang, Cynthia J. Berg, and Joy Herndon from the Division of Reproductive Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, published a paper in the American Journal of Public Health entitled Homicide: A Leading Cause of Injury Deaths Among Pregnant and Postpartum Women in the United States, 1991–1999. This paper was reported on by the Washington Post.Currently the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control has a fact sheet with summarizes current research on the subject.

Leave a Comment » | Deaths, Homicide, intimate partner violence, Jessie Davis, Mothers, Vital Statistics System | Permalink
Posted by billcrews

Unmarried Childbearing

June 26, 2007

The National Center for Health Statistics tracks the number and percentage of births to unmarried women because it is a key social indicator.  According to the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics:

Children of unmarried mothers are at higher risk of having adverse birth outcomes, such as low birthweight and infant mortality, and are more likely to live in poverty than children of married mothers.

In 2004, 35.8% of all live births were to unmarried women. Compare and contrast that to 14.3% in 1970.

Numbers of births to unmarried women and their percentage of the universe of live births from 1970 through 2004 is available here.

Two good reports we have produced on the subject are Births to Unmarried Mothers: United States, 1980-92 and Nonmarital Childbearing in the United States, 1940-99.

Leave a Comment » | Births, children, Mothers, National Center for Health Statistics, out-of-wedlock births, single mothers, unmarried childbearing, Vital Statistics System | Permalink
Posted by billcrews

Health Insurance Coverage

June 26, 2007

The National Center for Health Statistics has released its estimates of health insurance coverage in the United States derived from household interviews conducted under the aegis of the Health Interview Survey. The report is entitled Early Release of Health Insurance Estimates Based on Data From the 2006 National Health Interview Survey.

As an aside, the Census Bureau conducts a similar study, using a different methodology so when comparing insurance coverage over time you have to be careful to make an apples-to-apples comparison.

Top line results:

The study examines data collected from interviews in over 100,000 households nationwide. Some of the highlights include:

  • In 2006, there were 43.6 million Americans of all ages who did not have health insurance (at the time of the interview), or 14.8% of the population.
  • Among working-age Americans (those ages 18-64), there were 19.8% who did not have health insurance in 2006, a slight increase from 18.9% in 2005.
  • Approximately 9.3% of children under the age of 18 did not have health insurance in 2006, a decrease from 13.9% in 1997.
  • In 2006, the percentage uninsured at the time of interview among the 20 largest states ranged from 7.7% in Michigan to 23.8% in Texas.

If you are interested in health insurance this report is a must-read.

1 Comment | health insurance, National Center for Health Statistics, National Health Interview Survey, uninsured | Permalink
Posted by billcrews

Sexual Behavior and Drug Use

June 26, 2007

The National Center for Health Statistics released its first ever study of the sexual behavior and drug use in American adults with the release of Drug Use and Sexual Behaviors Reported by Adults: United States, 1999-2002, based on the extremely rich data collected from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey’s personal interview modules on sexual behavior and drug use.

The report uses data collected over a 4-year period from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Some of the highlights include

  • Only 4 percent of adults ages 20 years and older have never had sex.
  • Of all race/ethnic groups, Mexican-American adults had the lowest percentage (88 percent) who ever had sex.
  • Twenty-nine percent of men reported having 15 or more female sexual partners over their lifetime compared to 9 percent of women who reported having 15 or more male sexual partners in a lifetime.
  • More than one in five adults 20-49 years of age have tried cocaine or other street drugs at some time in their life.

Leave a Comment » | Drug use (illegal), National Center for Health Statistics, NHANES, sexual behavior | Permalink
Posted by billcrews

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