With a total of almost 277,000 patients discharged from the acute hospitals of the A.C. of the Basque Country in 2004, according to Eustat data, the hospital morbidity rate can be seen to have increased over this five-year period (2000-2004): while in 2000, 122 per 1,000 inhabitants were discharged from hospital, in 2004 this rate came to 131.

Hospital morbidity is a useful indicator for knowing and comparing people’s level of health, how widespread diseases are, as well the use of hospital services.

The main reasons put forward for the rise in the number of discharges are, among others, the increase in the number of patients receiving treatment in day hospital surgeries, the reduction of the average hospital stay and a greater use of hospital services.

Leaving obstetrics admissions (pregnancy and childbirth) to one side, men showed a higher hospital morbidity rate (130 per 1,000 men) than women (109 per 1,000 women) in all age brackets.

In men, hospitalisation was most frequent in the 70-74 age bracket, while for women it was between the ages 30-34 due to the effect of pregnancy and childbirth; if this was not taken into account, then the highest frequency would be the 75-79 age group, given greater female longevity.

Children of less than one year old and the most senior age groups (65 and over in the case of men and 70 and over for women) were the age groups with the greatest proportion of the hospitalised population. The frequency of hospitalisation increased with age for both men and women (leaving aside pregnancy and childbirth).

Circulatory system diseases remained the main cause of hospitalisation with 13.1% of all discharges in 2004, as was the case for the rest of the State (2003), where it accounted for 12.9%. The hospital morbidity rate for circulatory disease was higher for men (20.3 discharges per 1,000 men) than women (14.3 discharges per 1,000 women), and also had special incidence among the group aged 65 and over.

Among circulatory diseases, cardiac insufficiency was the most common diagnosis, as well as being the main cause of in-hospital deaths for women and the second for men (after malignant neoplasm of the trachea, bronchial tubes and lungs).

Among the most common causes of hospital admission after circulatory diseases, were digestive system diseases, followed by those of the nervous system and sensory organs.

The order of the most common kinds of disease varied according to sex. While for men diseases related to the circulatory system were the main causes of hospital admission, followed by digestive system and respiratory diseases, for women they came in third place, behind complications in pregnancy, childbirth and puerperium and diseases of the nervous system and sensory organs.

Taking age into account, the most frequent cause of admission among young people of both sexes (from 0-14 years old) were respiratory diseases (especially chronic tonsillitis and adenoids); for people aged 15-44, most common were fractures and lesions (dislocation of the kneecap) for men and pregnancy and childbirth for women.

After the age of 45 the group of circulatory diseases become the main cause of hospital admission among men, while for women it appears later, after 75. The situation is somewhat different among women aged 45 to 74, where the group of diseases affecting the musculoskeletal system (internal knee disorders) appears as the main cause of admission among those aged 45-64 and diseases of the nervous system and sensory organs (cataracts) among the 65-74 year-olds.

57% of patients admitted underwent a surgical operation. Among the most common during this five-year period (2000-2004) were those carried out on the musculoskeletal system (arthroscopy and semi-lunar cartilage operations). These were followed, in order of frequency, by operations on the digestive system (especially hernia repair), eye operations (cataract intervention) obstetrics and operations on the cardiovascular system (varicose veins, cardiac catheterization and coronary angioplasty).