OBJECTIVES

: The goal of this study, which included more than two million adults from Germany, was to analyze potential associations between hospital admission and various factors, including physician specialty, patient age and sex, and several diagnoses.

METHODS

: This retrospective cross sectional study included 2,050,453 adult patients (mean age [SD]: 52.3 [19.8] years; 53.0% women) with at least one visit to one of 900 general practices (GPs) in Germany between January 2019 and December 2019 documented in the Disease Analyzer database (IQVIA). The main outcome of the study was the prevalence of hospital admissions in 2019. A multivariate logistic regression model was conducted to study the association between age, sex, the predefined diagnoses, and hospital admission.

RESULTS : Of the patients analyzed, 6.6% were admitted into a hospital in 2019. The proportion of patients who were admitted into a hospital increased with age, from 3.5% in the 18-40 age group to 12.5% in the age group over 80. In the multivariate regression analyses, 24 diseases were significantly associated with hospital admission. The strongest association was observed for acute appendicitis (Odds Ratio (OR: 15.64 (95% Confidence Intervals (CI): 14.70-16.64)), followed by hernia (OR: 4.36 (95% CI: 4.21-4.51)), cholelithiasis (OR: 3.08 (05% CI: 2.95-3.22)), breathing abnormalities (OR: 2.58 (95% CI: 2.49-2.69)), cancer (OR: 2.32 (95% CI: 2.26-2.37)), and abdominal and pelvic pain (OR: 2.28 (95% CI: 2.23-2.34)).

CONCLUSIONS

: The proportion of patients admitted to hospitals is relatively high, and hospital care plays an important role in treating several gastrointestinal, oncological, cardiovascular, and respiratory disorders.