In 2009, the year H1N1 was widely recognized in the U.S., influenza became the tenth most common reason for children to be admitted to a hospital. In 2000, the flu ranked 65th among reasons for pediatric admission to 10th, a federal statistics brief shows.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project also found that hospitalizations of children with skin infections ratcheted up from 13th to 7th from 2000 to 2009.
Pediatric hospitalizations are a huge concern, because they make up one in six discharges from U.S. hospitals, or 6.4 million stays, even though the majority of these are newborns. Children are defined as patients 17 years of age or younger.
There were 6.4 million hospital stays for children and 17 years and under in 2009, and about three-quarters of those were for children under the age of one year.
Teen pregnancy hospitalizations were the fourth leading diagnostic category for hospital stays for children, but they dropped significantly, from a high of 28.7 discharges per 10,000 in 2000 to 22.9 in 2009, or from 175,000 to 155,000 stays between 2006 and 2009.
Diseases of the digestive system, the second highest rate with 37.7 hospitalizations per 10,000 children in 2009, also dropped from 44.5 per 10,000 in 2006.
The discharge rate for children was 858 per 10,000 compared to 1,285 per 10,000 for the general population.
Costs are a big concern as well, as total costs for pediatric hospitalizations in 2009 were $33.6 billion, 9% of total costs for all patients.
But compared with all hospitalizations in 2009, a child's average hospital stay is shorter – 3.8 days versus 4.6 days – and less expensive – $5,200 versus $9,200.
There were two significant reasons in categories of hospitalization for children, the agency reported. Discharges for ear, nose, mouth, and throat conditions increased from 16.6 per 10,000 children in 2006 to 19.6 per 10,000 in 2009. And the rate for discharges for skin and subcutaneous tissue increased significantly between 2000 and 2006 but not between 2006 and 2009.
The top 10 major diagnostic categories for hospital stays in children during 2009, which totalled 6.4 million, break down like this:
1. Respiratory system, including pneumonia, asthma, and acute bronchitis – 510,000.
5. Mental disorders, including mood disorders – 144,000
6. Endocrine, nutritional and metabolic – 139,000
10. Infectious and parasitic diseases – 89,000
While prophylactic vaccinations and circumcision topped the list of procedures performed on children in U.S. hospitals in 2009, 226,700 procedures involved respiratory intubation and mechanical ventilation and 165,100 involved enteral and parenteral nutrition. Blood transfusions given to children numbered 109,400.