Longitudinal trends in hospital admissions with co-occurring alcohol/drug diagnoses, 1994–2002
Received 19 December 2006; received in revised form 13 July 2007; accepted 8 August 2007. published online 16 October 2007.
Abstract
In this observational study, longitudinal trends (1994–2002) in hospital admissions with co-occurring alcohol/drug abuse and addiction (ADAA; N = 43,073) were examined to determine prevalence and hospital costs by payer group and type of drug used. Four primary drug types were reported: 49% used a combination of two or more drugs, 25% used alcohol only, 11.8% used opioids only, and 6.5% used cocaine only. Costs of admissions increased significantly for those using two or more drugs (119%, from US$12.7 to US$27.8 million), alcohol (120%, from US$9 to US$19.8 million), and opioids (482%, from US$1.7 to US$9.9 million). Medicaid/Medicare represented 70% of the overall number of admissions and also paid 70% of hospital costs. Among Medicaid/Medicare and uninsured admissions, illicit drug use was more common, whereas among private payer admissions, alcohol abuse was more common. Hospital admissions with co-occurring ADAA must be considered when estimating the scope of ADAA and its financial burden.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA
Corresponding author. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Meyer Building 3-142, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA. Tel.: +1 410 955 6871; fax: +1 410 955 6901.
ABSTRACT