Admissions for diabetes complications in regions 2001/02

Page content: Total diabetes admissions | Long-term diabetes complications | Short-term diabetes complications | Repeat attenders and Hospital-in-the-Home | Download regional reports

Total diabetes admissions

Table 8 summarises the rate of admissions for complications of diabetes and average number of bed days in the nine regions during 2001-02. The admission rate for diabetes complications in 2001-02 varied from 6.09 per 1,000 persons (5.94-6.24) in Eastern Metropolitan Region to 12.15 per 1,000 persons (11.76-12.56) in Gippsland Region. The average number of bed days during the same period varied from 4.49 in Gippsland Region to 8.17 in Western Metropolitan Region.

Table 8 - Rates of admission, 95 per cent confidence intervals and average and total number of bed days for diabetes complications, 2001-02

The proportion of all repeat admissions in Victorian admissions for diabetes complications was 39.60 per cent. When only the first admission for the year was included, the region rank for admission rates changed substantially, with admission being highest in Western Metropolitan, Northern Metropolitan and Barwon-South West Region, and lowest in Grampians Region, Gippsland Region (the region with the highest admission rate) and Eastern Metropolitan Region.

There were four regions with admission rate ratios significantly higher than the Victorian average for 2001-02. Gippsland had the highest rate ratio, at 1.40 (1.35-1.45), while Eastern Metropolitan had the lowest, at 0.70 (0.68-0.72) (Figure 12).

Figure 12 - Total diabetes complication admission rate ratios, by region (Victoria = 1), 2001-02

Key findings

• There were four regions with admission rate ratios significantly higher than the Victorian average in 2001-02.
• These were, from highest to lowest: Gippsland Region, Western Metropolitan Region, Grampians Region and Northern Metropolitan Region.

Together, these four regions accounted for 43.58 per cent (n=19,125) of all admissions for diabetes complications, and 44.01 per cent of number of bed days for Victorian admissions for diabetes complications.

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Admissions for long-term diabetes complications

Table 9 summarises the rate of admissions for long-term complications of diabetes and the average number of bed days in Department of Human Services regions in 2001-02. The admission rate for long-term diabetes complications in 2001-02 varied from 5.95 per 1,000 persons (5.80-6.10) in Eastern Metropolitan Region to 11.90 per 1,000 persons (11.52-12.30) in Gippsland. The average number of bed days during the same period varied from 4.51 in Gippsland Region to 8.19 in Western Metropolitan Region.

Table 9 - Rates of admission, 95 per cent confidence intervals and average and Total number of bed days for long-term diabetes complications, 2001-02

There were four regions with admission rate ratios significantly higher than the Victorian average for 2001-02. Gippsland had the highest rate ratio, at 1.40 (1.35-1.45), while Eastern Metropolitan Region had the lowest, at 0.70 (0.68-0.72) (Figure 13).

Figure 13 - Long-term diabetes complication admission rate ratios, by region (Victoria = 1), 2001-02

Key findings

• There were four regions with admission rate ratios significantly higher than the Victorian average in 2001-02.
• The four regions with admission rate ratios significantly higher than the Victorian average were, from highest to lowest, Gippsland Region, Western Metropolitan Region, Grampians Region and Northern Metropolitan Region.
• Together, these four regions accounted for 43.68 per cent (n=18,827) of all admissions for diabetes complications and 44.02 per cent of number of bed days for Victorian admissions for diabetes complications.

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Admissions for short-term diabetes complications

Table 10 summarises the rate of admissions for short-term complications of diabetes and the average number of bed days in Department of Human Services regions in 2001-02. The admission rate for short-term diabetes complications in 2001-02 varied from 0.19 per 1,000 persons (0.16-0.22) in Eastern Metropolitan Region to 0.31 per 1,000 persons (0.26-0.38) in Barwon-South West Region. The average number of bed days during the same period varied from 3.72 for the Loddon Mallee Region to 7.84 in Hume Region.

Table 10 - Rates of admission, 95 per cent confidence intervals and average and total number of bed days for short-term diabetes complications, 2001-02

Only two regions had admission rate ratios significantly higher than the Victorian average for 2001-02: Gippsland Region, at 1.31 (1.03-1.66) and Barwon-South West Region, at 1.36 (1.11-1.66). The 95 per cent confidence interval was wide due to the small number of admissions for short-term complications of diabetes (Figure 14).

Figure 14 - Admission rate ratios for short-term diabetes complications, by region (Victoria = 1), 2001-02

Key findings

• Only two regions had admission rate ratios significantly higher than the Victorian average in 2001-02: Gippsland and Barwon-South West.
• These two regions accounted for 15.87 per cent (n=175) of all admissions for short-term diabetes complications.

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Repeat attenders and Hospital-in-the-Home

In 2001-02, 39.60 per cent of admissions for diabetes complications represented repeat admissions (to the same hospital) for persons who had already been hospitalised during the financial year, and were therefore repeat attenders. The extent of repeat admissions varied from a high of 62.15 per cent in Gippsland Region to 29.85 per cent in Eastern Metropolitan Region. Those regions with high re-admission rates tended to have the highest admission rates for diabetes complications. The average number of bed days for those regions was generally lower than for regions with lower levels of re-admission (Table 11).

Admissions associated with the Hospital-in-the-Home program did not feature prominently among diabetes admissions, with rates of Hospital-in-the-Home admissions ranging from a high of 3.55 per cent in Western Metropolitan Region to 1.69 per cent in Loddon-Mallee Region.

Table 11 - Percentage of repeat and hospital-in-the-home admissions admissions for diabetes complications, by region, 2001-02

In all regions, over 90 per cent of admissions of repeat attenders were related to long-term complications, in particular, renal complications. Admissions for 'other complications' (which includes foot ulcers) also featured prominently.

As with repeat attender admissions, almost all Hospital-in-the-Home program admissions for diabetes complications were related to long-term diabetes complications.

Key findings

• Rates of repeat admissions varied from 62.15 per cent for Gippsland Region to 29.85 per cent for Eastern Metropolitan Region. Regions with the highest readmission rates were also among those with the highest rates of admission for diabetes complications.
• Admissions associated with the Hospital-in-the-Home program comprised 2.87 per cent of all admissions for diabetes complications during 2001-02. This ranged from 1.69 per cent of diabetes complications admissions in Loddon Mallee Regions to 3.55 per cent in Western Metropolitan Region.

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Download regional reports

The following regional reports are available for individual download. You can also download the entire Victorian Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions study: Diabetes complications in Victoria 2001/02 (which includes all of the reports below).

Diabetes complications in regions 2001/02 - Overview (52kb, pdf)

1. Diabetes complications in regions 2001/02 - Barwon-South Western (73kb, pdf)

2. Diabetes complications in regions 2001/02 - Grampians (88kb, pdf)

3. Diabetes complications in regions 2001/02 - Loddon Mallee (72kb, pdf)

4. Diabetes complications in regions 2001/02 - Hume (71kb, pdf)

5. Diabetes complications in regions 2001/02 - Gippsland (73kb, pdf)

6. Diabetes complications in regions 2001/02 - Western Metropolitan (72kb, pdf)

7. Diabetes complications in regions 2001/02 - Northern Metropolitan (72kb, pdf)

8. Diabetes complications in regions 2001/02 - Eastern Metropolitan (65kb, pdf)

9. Diabetes complications in regions 2001/02 - Southern Metropolitan (71kb, pdf)

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