Press Release 21/11/2016
Admissions for respiratory diseases in Basque hospitals increased by 12% in 2015
Over 24,000 cataract operations were performed
Hospitals in the Basque Country registered 321,039 discharges of people that were admitted in 2015, which is no change from the previous year according to Eustat data. Admissions for respiratory diseases (31,500), on the other hand, increased by 12% from the previous year, making it the fourth most common cause of hospital admissions in 2015 (it was sixth in 2014). From this group, special mention should go to pneumonia, which is more common in older people (people aged 80 or more), and chronic bronchitis in men aged between 75 and 84.
79% of hospital admissions occurred in public hospitals, with 21% occurring in private hospitals. Women accounted for 51% of all admissions, with men accounting for 49%. However, if we discount admissions for childbirth and pregnancy, the proportions are reversed, with men accounting for more admissions (53%) than women.
People admitted to hospitals are increasingly old. 47.6% of people admitted were aged 65 and older (46.5% in 2014). Of those, 41.4% were aged 80 and older, a group that has doubled in size over the last fifteen years.
According to the standardised classification of diseases, the most common cause of hospitalisation were still diseases affecting the nervous system and the sense organs (13.8%). This was because of the frequent occurrence of cataracts, which, with 24,766 cases treated, accounted for over half the diseases in this group.
Next came diseases of the digestive system and diseases of the circulatory system, which came joint second at 11.7%. These were then followed by respiratory diseases (9.8%), musculoskeletal disorders (9%) and tumours (8.8%).
The reasons for admission vary according to age and gender. In women, admissions for pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal issues decreased again (-2.5%), coming in second place (13.5%) after diseases of the nervous system and the sense organs (15.2%), which mainly affect women aged 70 and over.
In men, the main reasons for hospitalisation were diseases of the digestive system (14%) and those affecting the circulatory system (13.6%). The most prominent digestive disease were inguinal hernias, whilst the most prominent circulatory disease were arrhythmias, which were most common in men aged 80 and above.
Hospital deaths increased by 8.3% in 2015 to 7,949. The main causes of death were circulatory diseases and tumours, which were responsible for 43% of deaths. The next most common causes of death were respiratory diseases, which increased by 16.7% compared with the previous year.
The average stay in hospital stood at 5.7 days in 2015. The longest stays were for mental disorders (13.2 days on average), then perinatal diseases (10.9 days), infectious diseases (8.8 days) and tumours (7.3 days).
Note: The data refers to hospitals providing acute care. Conventional hospital admissions were considered (stays of at least one night) and so were those who were discharged the same day. To calculate the average stay, stays lasting one day were not factored in.
For further information:
Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Instituto Vasco de Estadística
C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz
Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.eus Tel: 945 01 75 62
Further press releases on Hospital discharge statistics
Hospital discharge statistics databank