USE OF HOSPITAL INPATIENT CARE IN ADOLESCENCE

Epidemiological information about detailed patterns of physical morbid ity within the adolescent age group is not generally available. To ill ustrate the distinctive patterns of morbidity indicated by the use of hospital inpatient care, hospital admission rates in the Oxford region (1979-86) were analysed at each single year of age from 10 to 19 year s. At the age of 10 years 22% of general hospital admissions were to p aediatrics, 24% to general surgery, 23% to ear, nose, and throat surge ry, and 20% to trauma and orthopaedics. By 14 years of age only 6% of general hospital admissions were to paediatrics. By 16 years of age 24 % of general hospital admissions of young women were to gynaecology an d 40% of admissions of young men were to trauma and orthopaedics. The most common reason for hospital admission in young men was head injury and the second most common was appendicectomy. Termination of pregnan cy was the single most common reason for admission for girls aged 15 a nd 16 years; childbirth and terminations were the most common reasons for admission in girls aged 17-19 years and over. Self poisoning was a lso common in older teenage girls. Younger girls were admitted most co mmonly for tonsillectomy. Most admissions of adolescents are thus for surgical rather than medical reasons and some of the most common indiv idual reasons for admission are attributable to behavioural factors ra ther than disease processes.