EditorialOpen Access

Nationwide Trends of Hospital Admission for Morbid Obesity in the USA

Volume 3 - Issue 5

**Rutaba Tajammal, Sultan Mahmood* and Salman Nusrat**

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- University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, USA
*Corresponding author: Sultan Mahmood, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, OK 73114, USA

Received: April 06, 2018; Published: April 16, 2018

DOI: 10.26717/BJSTR.2018.03.000963

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Abstract

Obesity is a chronic disease that is increasing in prevalence and is now widely considered a global epidemic. The aim of this study was to evaluate the burden of inpatient admission, length of stay and associated cost related to inpatient management and how it has changed over the past two decades. Using data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample and National Emergency Department Sample we examined the characteristics of hospitalization for Morbid Obesity (ICD-9 code 278.01) and evaluated the time trends of resource utilization from 1997 to 2012. Between 1997 and 2012, the number of hospitalizations with a discharge di

agnosis of morbid obesity increased from 2,224 to 5,634 (RR 2.3, p<0.001). The number of hospitalized patients older than 44 increased from 32.4% to 50.7% (RR 1.31, p=<0.001). Aggregate charges increased 22 folds from $ 40,773,971 to $ 891,215,569. Our analysis shows that there has been an increasing burden of morbid obesity in the hospitalized population which corresponds with the increasing prevalence of obesity in the US during this same time period. There is also an increasing prevalence of morbid obesity in older population who tend to have longer hospital stays, and increased inpatient morbidity and mortality.

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