Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health

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Volume 6, Issue 4, December 2016, Pages 295 - 302

Hospital admissions among immigrants from low-income and foreign citizens from high-income countries in Spain in 2000–2012

Authors
José M. Ramosa, b, *, jramosrincon@yahoo.es, Héctor Pinargotea, Eva M. Navarrete-Muñozc, d, Alejando Salinase, Jaume Sastref
aDepartment of Internal Medicine, Hospital General Universitario de Alicante, Alicante, Spain
bDepartment of Clinical Medicine, Miguel Hernández University of Elche, Alicante, Spain
cDepartment of Public Health, Miguel Hernández University of Elche, Alicante, Spain
dCIBER en Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Barcelona, Spain
eDepartment of Internal Medicine, Hospital de Denia, Alicante, Spain
fDepartment of Admission and Documentation, Hospital General Universitario de Alicante, Alicante, Spain
*Corresponding author at: Department of Internal Medicine, Hospital General Universitario de Alicante, Alicante, Spain.
Corresponding Author
José M. Ramosjramosrincon@yahoo.es
Received 2 September 2015, Revised 5 July 2016, Accepted 29 July 2016, Available Online 18 August 2016.
DOI
10.1016/j.jegh.2016.07.002How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Foreigners; High-income countries; Low-income countries; Public hospital
Abstract

Over the last decade, the number of foreign nationals in Spain has increased. Our aim was to report the trends in hospital admissions, differentiating between foreign nationals from high-income countries (HICs) and from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in a public hospital. A retrospective analysis of hospital admissions in patients aged ⩾15 years between 2000 and 2012 was performed by means of hospital information systems at a public hospital in the city of Alicante, Spain. During the period of the study, 387,862 patients were admitted: 32,020 (8.3%) were foreign, 22,446 (5.8%) were from LMICs, and 9574 (2.5%) were from HICs. The number of foreign nationals, foreign nationals from LMICs, and foreign nationals from HICs admitted increased from 1019, 530, and 489 in 2000 to 2925, 2097, and 828, respectively in 2012. A total of 27.5% of patients were admitted for pregnancy, childbirth, and puerperium, especially foreign nationals from LMICs (34.3%), and 14.1% of foreign nationals were admitted for cardiovascular diseases (14.1%), which were more common in those from HICs (26.3%). The number of admissions among foreign nationals from LMICs increased significantly in all the diagnoses, but in pregnancy, childbirth, and puerperium, the increase was higher. In conclusion, nearly one out of 10 adult patients admitted to our hospital was foreign, mainly from LMICs, and the main reason for admission was diagnoses related to pregnancy, childbirth, and puerperium.

Copyright
© 2016 Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Open Access
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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<Previous Article In Issue
Next Article In Issue>
Journal
Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health
Volume-Issue
6 - 4
Pages
295 - 302
Publication Date
2016/08/18
ISSN (Online)
2210-6014
ISSN (Print)
2210-6006
DOI
10.1016/j.jegh.2016.07.002How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2016 Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Open Access
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Cite this article

risenwbib
TY  - JOUR
AU  - José M. Ramos
AU  - Héctor Pinargote
AU  - Eva M. Navarrete-Muñoz
AU  - Alejando Salinas
AU  - Jaume Sastre
PY  - 2016
DA  - 2016/08/18
TI  - Hospital admissions among immigrants from low-income and foreign citizens from high-income countries in Spain in 2000–2012
JO  - Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health
SP  - 295
EP  - 302
VL  - 6
IS  - 4
SN  - 2210-6014
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jegh.2016.07.002
DO  - 10.1016/j.jegh.2016.07.002
ID  - Ramos2016
ER  -