Press Release 29/04/2021

HOSPITAL MORBIDITY STATISTICS. 2019

84% of hospital admissions in the Basque Country were treated in public hospitals, almost 11 percentage points more than in Spain as a whole in 2019

Circulatory diseases were the main cause of hospital admission in the Basque Country

Hospitals in the Basque Country registered 247,502 admissions in 2019, 0.4% down on the previous year, according to Eustat data, which represented 5.1% of the total for Spain as a whole. By ownership of the hospital, it is worth noting that the proportion of admissions to Basque public hospitals was 83.5%, almost 11 percentage points more than in Spain, whose average rate was 73%.

Comparatively, the morbidity rate was 11,282 hospitalisations per 100,000 inhabitants (-0.9% compared to 2018), placing the Basque Country above the Spanish average (10,347) and in fourth place among the autonomous communities.

The proportion of men admitted to hospital (50.6%) was similar to that of women (49.4%), whilst nationally it was higher for women (51.9%). However, if pregnancy, childbirth and puerperium incidents are not taken into account, the presence of women would drop by 45.7% in the Basque Country (47.4% in Spain). In terms of age, 51% of people who were hospitalised were aged 65 and over, 5 points higher than in Spain as a whole (46%).

The average age of those admitted was 61 in the Basque Country (57 in Spain) and, by sex, 61 for men and 60 for women (64 without taking into account cases due to pregnancy and childbirth).

The main causes of hospital admissions, as in Spain as a whole, were circulatory, digestive and respiratory diseases, which accounted for 38.2% of admissions (37.4% nationally). On the other hand, the group of hospital stays associated with pregnancy, childbirth and post-natal care occupied eighth place in the Basque Country with 6.8% of admissions, whereas in Spain it was situated in sixth position (8.5%), ahead of diseases affecting the musculoskeletal system and genitourinary system.

The aforementioned three groups of diseases accounted for 33.4% of hospital admissions in the case of women and 42.9% in that of men (nationally 31.8% and 43.3%, respectively).

Furthermore, people suffering from the group of diseases affecting the circulatory system were the oldest (73 years), while men were admitted at an earlier age than women for trauma and injuries (54 for men and 67 for women; 53 and 65 nationally).

According to the overall care figures, 94.8% of admissions were in acute care hospitals (234,674 admissions), 4.1% in medium and long-stay hospitals (10,092) and 1.1% (2,736) in psychiatric hospitals.

Taking into account the overall care figures, the pattern in medium and long-stay and psychiatric hospitals, with 5.2% of admissions, was different to that of acute care hospitals, in terms of both the pathologies treated and the length of stay in hospital.

In medium and long-stay hospitals the majority of admissions corresponded to diseases of the respiratory system (26 %) or the circulatory system (18.6%) and the average length of stay

was 19 days. In the case of psychiatric hospitals, schizophrenia was the main reason for admission.

Methodological note

This statistical operation has been carried out in collaboration with the National Institute of Statistics-INE.

For reasons of comparability with Spanish and international statistics, the hospital admissions mode only takes into account admissions with a stay equal to or greater than 1 day, that is, admissions with 0 days are not counted. The length of stay is calculated as the number of days between the date of admission and the date of discharge, without taking into account the time of admission or discharge.

The hospitalisation rate per 100,000 inhabitants in the Basque Country was calculated using the Eustat population as at 01/07/2019.

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.es Tel: 945 01 75 62