OBJECTIVES: To generate national estimates of the inpatient economic burden of key medical conditions among Asian- American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) females hospitalized in the United States in 2005. Conditions analyzed were based upon research conducted by the US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Women’s Health, which identified conditions of particular concern for this underserved population.
METHODS: Data from the 2005 HCUP Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) database were analyzed for 438,577 hospital stays (unweighted = 91,092) for AAPI females. Among these, we identified stays in which the primary or second diagnosis, using relevant ICD-9-CM diagnosis codes, was for tuberculosis (TB), Hepatitis B (HBV), osteoporosis, cervical cancer (CC), and breast cancer (BC). Using sampling weights provided with the NIS dataset, national estimates of mean per-discharge length of stay (LOS) and total costs, and aggregate (i.e., summed across all discharges) total days and costs were estimated for each condition.
RESULTS: Among hospitalizations for AAPI women in 2005, we found 485 hospitalizations for TB (with relevant primary or second diagnosis only), 1237 for HBV, 672 for osteoporosis, 490 for CC, and 1594 for BC. For each condition, the mean per-discharge LOS and aggregate total days were 12.3 and 5611; 4.7 and 5804; 3.5 and 2325; 4.7 and 2316; and 2.7 and 4379 days, respectively. Finally, for each condition, the mean per-discharge and aggregate total costs were $20,563 and $9,099,718, $10,230 and $11,408,636, $8,284 and $5,269,951, $10,174 and $4,472,145, and $8,040 and $11,655,081, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS: In this study we examined the inpatient economic burden of illnesses that are of concern for AAPI women in the US. The total cost incurred for just these 5 conditions (4,478 discharges) was in excess of $40,000,000. Policy and other decision makers should be aware of the burden of these conditions as strategies to address these illnesses among this minority population are developed.
