Tuberculosis management continues to utilize a large amount of hospital resources in the United States

Abstract

Background and aims: The objective of this study is to examine longitudinal trends in hospital admissions attributed to tuberculosis and resulting hospitalization outcomes in the United States for the years 2000-2010.

Methods: We used the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, which is the largest all-payer and nationally representative in-hospital dataset in the United States. All hospitalizations that had a primary diagnosis for tuberculosis were selected for analysis. Patient characteristics and outcomes including discharge status following hospitalization, length of stay in hospital and hospitalization charges were examined.

Results: During the study period, a total of 96 431 hospitalizations occurred due to tuberculosis. The mean age of hospitalizations was 48.6 years. Males comprised 64.2% of all hospitalizations; 24.8% were Whites, 25.5% Blacks, 26.5% Hispanics, 14.3% Asians/Pacific Islanders, 1% Native Americans, and 7.9% other/mixed races. Following hospitalization, 72.1% were discharged routinely, 3.4% were transferred to another acute-care hospital, 10.7% to long-term care facilities including skilled nursing facilities, 7.6% to home health care, and 2.1% were discharged against medical advice. There were 3815 patients who died (4% of hospitalizations). The total hospitalization charge for this cohort of patients admitted due to tuberculosis across the United States was $6.96 billion and the total hospitalization days over study period was 1 419 605 days.

Conclusion: High-risk cohorts who are likely to be hospitalized due to tuberculosis included Blacks and Hispanics. Majority of hospitalization comprised of males. Even though the annual number of hospitalizations reduced over the study period, substantial amounts of resources are used in hospital settings to manage tuberculosis.

Keywords: epidemiology; hospitalization outcomes; hospitalizations; tuberculosis.