Characteristics of hospitalizations among adolescents in Taiwan: population-based data

To understand the adolescent health status in Taiwan, we collected hospitalization data of Taiwanese adolescents in 1997 under the execution of National Health Insurance (NHI). Then 5% of the data was selected with systematic sampling method by National Health Research Institute (NHRI) and was categorized according to age, gender, disease pattern and specialty. The results showed there were totally 160, 120 adolescent admissions in 1997, about 6.81% of total population admissions. There were more female than male admissions and more late adolescent than early adolescent admissions. In clinical disorders, injury was the leading cause of hospitalization for male adolescent and female early adolescent admissions. Delivery was the leading cause of hospitalization for female late adolescent admissions. The most common specialty admissions among early adolescents were for pediatrics, followed by surgery, and then general medicine. Among late adolescents, the most common specialty admissions were for surgery, followed by obstetrics and gynecology, and then general medicine. In conclusion, the most common reasons of adolescence hospitalization were related to behavioral factors rather than disease processes, and adolescent admissions by specialty were mostly non-professional.