Pediatric AIDS-Related Discharges in a Sample of U.S. Hospitals: Demographics,Diagnoses, and Resource Use

摘要

The paper describes care provided to children with acquired immunodeficiencysyndrome (AIDS) in U.S. hospitals, based on 196 pediatric discharges with AIDS-related diagnoses in 1986-1987, using data from the Hospital Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). HCUP, a national sample of more than 400 general hospitals, may exclude certain high-volume providers but reflects the range of demographic and clinical characteristics among children with AIDS. Pediatric AIDS discharges are compared with 10,538 adult AIDS discharges and with 32,166 pediatric discharges for any diagnosis (chosen from a sample of all discharges). Pediatric AIDS hospitalizations are more likely to be government-financed, longer, and more expensive than all-cause pediatric stays. Compared with adult AIDS, pediatric AIDS discharges are also more likely to be government financed. Lengths of stay and charges for pediatric AIDS are not significantly different than those for adult AIDS, based on a comparison of arithmetic averages. However, pediatric stays are significantly shorter than adult stays when based on a comparison of geometric means, which minimizes the effect of extraordinarily long stays.