Oral health hospitalizations include the number of people who were admitted to the hospital for an oral health problem. Most dental care received in hospital settings could be provided more effectively and at a lower cost in a dental office, and many hospital visits could be prevented altogether with regular dental care, including intervention and treatment. These data can be used to identify trends and patterns of hospital admissions over time and in different geographic areas. Advanced options include age group and gender.
In October 2015, the way hospital and emergency department discharge data were coded changed from ICD-9-CM to ICD-10-CM. This transition may affect how Oral Health hospitalization and emergency department visits are captured, caution must be used when evaluating time trends or comparing data from 2015 and before to data from 2016 or later.
Interpretation examples:
- Washington County experienced greater rates of hospitalization due to oral health issues in 2017 than Linn County, with 2.92 per 10,000 residents compared to just 1.53 per 10,000 residents.
- In Iowa, 1.52 per 10,000 residents 65 years and older experienced oral health-related hospitalizations compared to just 0.94 per 10,000 residents ages 35 through 64 in 2017.
- The rate of hospitalizations due to oral health issues has declined from 1.26 per 10,000 residents in 2016 to 0.92 per 10,000 residents in 2017.
Measure Description:
- The Count of Hospitalizations is the number of inpatient hospital admissions with a primary diagnosis code for an oral health problem.
- The Crude Rate (Per 10K) is the rate of inpatient hospital admissions with a primary diagnosis code for an oral health problem per 10,000 Population.
- The Age Adjusted Rate (Per 10K) is the age adjusted rate of inpatient hospital admissions with a primary diagnosis code for an oral health problem per 10,000 Population. Age adjustment to the 2000 Standard US Census is done to allow direct comparison of rates in counties and state with different population age distributions.