[Evolution of childhood hospitalization in Spain. Variation among autonomous communities]

To describe trends in children hospitalization in Spain during 1985-1994 and its variability among regions.

Description between 1985 and 1994, by autonomous regions, of the evolution in the rates of available beds, discharges, stays and visits and average length of stay, from data provided by the health care centres with inpatient statistics.

The average length of stay decreased 23.9%, but there was a 4.5% increase in bed availability, a 39.5% increase in the discharges rate and 36.8% in the visits rate. Regions showed large differences in all indicators, that trends to converge in beds availability and discharges, but not in length of stay and visits rate.

There has been an increase in hospital performance with strong variation among regions. Differences tends to reduce in some indicators but not in others.