• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.52-62
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• 2018

This study aims to analyze the factors affecting in-hospital complication and length of stay in elderly patients with total knee arthroplasty. A total of 8,224 inpatients over 65 years old were selected from the national old inpatient sample data which was produced by Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service in 2016. STATA 12.0 was performed using frequency, chi-square test, t-test, ANOVA and multiple linear and logistic regression analysis. Analysis results show that ages(over 85), Charlson Comorbidity Index, district(metropolitan) for general hospitals and gender, district, beds(100-199) for hospitals are significantly influenced in-hospital complication. Statistically significant factors affecting the length of stay are gender, insurance type, depression, district, bed(300 over) for general hospitals and gender, type of insurance, Charlson Comorbidity Index, depression, district, beds(200-299) for hospitals. Based on these findings, the factors affecting in-hospital complication and length of stay were different depending on the type of medical institution. Accordingly, policymakers should analyze the differences in care behavior depending on the type of medical institution and expand policy and financial support to resolve them.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.268-276
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• 2022

Purpose: Rib fractures are common injuries that can lead to morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data on all patients with rib fractures admitted to a single trauma center between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2018 were reviewed. Results: A total of 1,671 admissions for rib fracture were examined. Patients' median age was 57 years, the median Injury Severity Score (ISS) was 14, and the median number of fractured ribs was three. The in-hospital mortality rate was 4%. Age, the number of rib fractures, and Charlson Comorbidity Index scores were poor predictors of mortality, while the ISS was a slightly better predictor, with area under the receiver operating characteristic curve values of 0.60, 0.55, 0.58, and 0.74, respectively. Multivariate regression showed that age, ISS, and Charlson Comorbidity Index score, but not the number of rib fractures, were associated with significantly elevated adjusted odds ratios for mortality (1.03, 1.14, and 1.28, respectively). Conclusions: Age, ISS, and comorbidities were independently associated with the risk of mortality; however, they were not accurate predictors of death. The factors associated with rib fracture mortality are complex and cannot be explained by a single variable. Interventions to improve outcomes must be multifaceted.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.126-136
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to develop a severity-adjustment model for predicting mortality in acute stroke patients using machine learning. Using the Korean National Hospital Discharge In-depth Injury Survey from 2006 to 2015, the study population with disease code I60-I63 (KCD 7) were extracted for further analysis. Three tools were used for the severity-adjustment of comorbidity: the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), the Elixhauser comorbidity index (ECI), and the Clinical Classification Software (CCS). The severity-adjustment models for mortality prediction in patients with acute stroke were developed using logistic regression, decision tree, neural network, and support vector machine methods. The most common comorbid disease in stroke patients were hypertension, uncomplicated (43.8%) in the ECI, and essential hypertension (43.9%) in the CCS. Among the CCI, ECI, and CCS, CCS had the highest AUC value. CCS was confirmed as the best severity correction tool. In addition, the AUC values for variables of CCS including main diagnosis, gender, age, hospitalization route, and existence of surgery were 0.808 for the logistic regression analysis, 0.785 for the decision tree, 0.809 for the neural network and 0.830 for the support vector machine. Therefore, the best predictive power was achieved by the support vector machine technique. The results of this study can be used in the establishment of health policy in the future.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.527-540
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• 2011

Some patients tend to visit tertiary hospitals instead of non-tertiary hospitals for minor illnesses, which is a chronic problem within the Korean health care delivery system. In order to reduce the number of patients with minor severity diseases unnecessarily utilizing the tertiary medical services in Korea, the Ministry of Health and Welfare raised the outpatient co-insurance rate for the tertiary hospitals in July, 2009. Another increase in the prescription drug co-insurance rate by the general and tertiary hospitals is scheduled to take place in the second half of 2011. An increase in copayments may discourage the utilization rate of medical services among the underprivileged or patients who require complicated procedures. This study aims to analyze the diabetic patients' utilization rates of tertiary hospitals according to the Comorbidity score. Diabetic patients' data was gathered from the Health Insurance Claims Records in the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service between 2007-2009. Comorbidity scores are measured by the Charlson Comorbidity Index and the Elixhauser Index. Chi-square and logistic regressions were performed to compare the utilization rates of both insulin-dependents (n=94,026) and non-insulin-dependents (n=1,424,736) in tertiary hospitals. The higher Comorbidity outcomes in the insulin-dependent diabetic patients who didn't visit tertiary hospitals compared to those who did, was expected. However, after adjusting the gender, age, location, first visits and complications, the groups that scored >=1 on the comorbidity scale utilized the tertiary hospitals more than the O score group. Non-insulin-diabetic patients with higher Comorbidity scores visited tertiary hospitals more than patients who received lower grades. This study found that patients suffering from severe diabetes tend to frequently visit the tertiary hospitals in Korea. This result implied that it is important for Korea to improve the quality of its primary health care as well as to consider a co-insurance rate increase.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.288-302
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• 2019

Background: The one-person households (OPH) are rapidly increasing and vulnerable to socioeconomic and health problems. Because it is predicted to be inequitable to health care utilization, we would like to find out about the equity of health care utilization of the OPH by comparison with the multi-person households (MPH). Methods: This study followed the theoretical framework of Wagstaff and van Doorslaer (2000), O'Donnell and his colleagues (2008), where the horizontal inequity index is the difference between the concentration indices of actual health care utilization and health care needs. This study employed the 9th Korea Health Panel survey, and a total of 10,807 cases were analyzed. Health care needs were measured by age, sex, subjective health status, chronic disease count, Charlson's Comorbidity Index, limitation of activities, and disability. Results: Compared with the MPH, there were pro-poor inequities in hospitalization, emergency utilization, hospitalization out-of-pocket payments, and pro-rich inequities in outpatient out-of-pocket payments for the OPH. The decomposition of the concentration index revealed that chronic disease count made the largest contribution to socioeconomic inequality in outpatient utilization. Age, health insurance, economic activities, and subjective health status also proved more important contributors to inequality. The variables contributing to the hospitalization and emergency utilization inequity were age, education, Charlson's Comorbidity Index, marital status, and income. Conclusion: Because the OPH was more vulnerable to health problems than the MPH and there were pro-poor inequities in medical utilization, hospitalization, and emergency costs, it is necessary to develop a policy that can correct and improve the portion of high contribution to medical utilization of the OPH.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.217-230
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• 2019

This study was conducted to develop a customized severity-adjustment method and to evaluate their validity for acute myocardial infarction(AMI) patients to complement the limitations of the existing severity-adjustment method for comorbidities. For this purpose, the subjects of KCD-7 code I20.0 ~ I20.9, which is the main diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction were extracted using the Korean National Hospital Discharge In-depth Injury survey data from 2006 to 2015. Three tools were used for severity-adjustment method of comorbidities : CCI (charlson comorbidity index), ECI (Elixhauser comorbidity index) and the newly proposed CCS (Clinical Classification Software). The results showed that CCS was the best tool for the severity correction, and that support vector machine model was the most predictable. Therefore, we propose the use of the customized method of severity correction and machine learning techniques from this study for the future research on severity adjustment such as assessment of results of medical service.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.74-82
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• 2016

Objectives : Suicide attempters have impaired decision making and are at high risk of reattempt. Therefore it is important to refer them to psychiatric treatment. Especially, People with medical comorbidity are at higher risk of suicidal attempt and mortality. The aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics of suicidal attempters and to analyze the influence of the medical comorbidity on decision to receive psychiatric treatment after visit to an emergency department. Methods : One hundred and thirty two patients, who visited the emergency room of a general hospital in Gyeonggi-do between January, 2012 and December, 2012 were enrolled as the subjects of this study. After reviewing each subject's medical records retrospectively, demographic and clinical factors were analyzed. Results : Regardless of the engagement type, either via admission or outpatient clinic, the determinant factors of psychiatric treatment engagement were psychiatric diagnosis, employment status, previous psychiatric treatment history, and previous attempt history. Comparison of severity of medical comorbidity(Charlson Comorbidity Index) showed that suicide attempters who received psychiatric treatment via admission or refused the treatment tended to have higher level of medical comorbidity than who received psychiatric treatment via outpatient department. Conclusions : Our findings showed that medical comorbidity of suicide attempters affected the decision to accept psychiatric treatment. All psychiatrists should evaluate the presence and the severity of medical comorbidity of the suicide attempters and consider implementing more intervention for the medically ill attempters who are willing to discharge against advice.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.49-58
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• 2009

Objectives : The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the usefulness of the following four comorbidity indices in gastric cancer patients who underwent surgery: Charlson Comorbidity Index(CCI), Cumulative Illness rating scale(CIRS), Index of Co-existent Disease(ICED), and Kaplan-Feinstein Scale(KFS). Methods : The study subjects were 614 adults who underwent surgery for gastric cancer at K hospital between 2005 and 2007. We examined the test-retest and inter-rater reliability of 4 comorbidity indices for 50 patients. Reliability was evaluated with Spearman rho coefficients for CCI and CIRS, while Kappa values were used for the ICED and KFS indices. Logistic regression was used to determine how these comorbidity indices affected unplanned readmission and death. Multiple regression was used for determining if the comorbidity indices affected length of stay and hospital costs. Results : The test-retest reliability of CCI and CIRS was substantial(Spearman rho=0.746 and 0.775, respectively), while for ICED and KFS was moderate(Kappa=0.476 and 0.504, respectively). The inter-rater reliability of the CCI, CIRS, and ICED was moderate(Spearman rho=0.580 and 0.668, and Kappa=0.433, respectively), but for KFS was fair(Kappa=0.383). According to the results from logistic regression, unplanned readmissions and deaths were not significantly different between the comorbidity index scores. But, according to the results from multiple linear regression, the CIRS group showed a significantly increased length of hospital stay(p<0.01). Additionally, CCI showed a significant association with increased hospital costs (p<0.01). Conclusions : This study suggests that the CCI index may be useful in the estimation of comorbidities associated with hospital costs, while the CIRS index may be useful where estimatation of comorbiditie associated with the length of hospital stay are concerned.

• Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.71-79
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• 2015

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the applicability of the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) and Acute Physiology, Age, Chronic Health Evaluation III (APACHE III) to the prediction of the healthcare outcomes of intensive care unit (ICU) patients. Methods: This research was performed with 136 adult patients (age>18 years) who were admitted to the ICU between May and June 2012. Data were measured using the CCI score with a comorbidity index of 19 and the APACHE III score on the standard of the worst result with vital signs and laboratory results. Discrimination was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and area under an ROC curve (AUC). Calibration was performed using logistic regression. Results: The overall mortality was 25.7%. The mean CCI and APACHE III scores for survivors were found to be significantly lower than those of non-survivors. The AUC was 0.835 for the APACHE III score and remained high, at 0.688, for the CCI score. The rate of concordance according to the CCI and the APACHE III score was 69.1%. Conclusion: The route of admission, days in ICU, CCI, and APACHE III score are associated with an increased mortality risk in ICU patients.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.63 no.6
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• pp.730-737
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• 2020

Objective : Spinal degeneration is a progressive disease, worsening over time. Lumbar degenerative disease (LDD) is a major spinal disease in elderly patients. Surgical treatment is considered for medically intractable patients with LDD and reoperation after primary surgery is not uncommon. The surgical outcome is occasionally unpredictable because of comorbidities. In the present study, the relationship between comorbidities and the incidence of reoperation for LDD over time was determined. Methods : The claims data of the health insurance national database were used to identify a cohort of patients who underwent spinal surgery for LDD in 2009. The patients were followed up until 2016. Medical comorbidity was assessed according to the Charlson comorbidity index (CCI). Cox proportional hazard regression modeling was used to identify significant differences in sex, surgery, age, causative disease, and comorbidity. Results : The study cohort included 78241 patients; 10328 patients (13.2%) underwent reoperation during the observation period. The reoperation rate was statistically higher (p<0.01) in males, patients 55-74 years and 65-74 years of age, and patients with decompression or discectomy. Significant association was found between increasing reoperation rate and CCI score (p<0.01). Based on multivariate analysis of comorbidities, the significantly higher reoperation rates were observed in patients with peripheral vascular disease, pulmonary lung disease, peptic ulcer, diabetes, and diabetes complications (p<0.01). Conclusion : The study results indicate the reoperation rate for LDD is associated with patient comorbidities. The comorbidities identified in this study could be helpful in future LDD studies.