Hepatitis A, B and C: Incidence of in-patients in Austria 1996-1998

The aim of this study is to analyse the data of all Austrian in-patients wh o had been hospitalized between 1996 and 1998 with the main diagnosis "vira l hepatitis" (according to ICD 9), in order to present data for epidemiolog ical as well as health-economical considerations. The data used stem from t he "Minimum Basic Data Set" (MBDS) which contains medical as well as demogr aphical recordings of every in-patient treated in an Austrian public hospit al. Hepatitis A: Values of the standardized hospitalization rate (SHR) rang ed from 2.6/100000 (1998) to 4.7/100000 (1997). On age classes, the highest values regularly were observed in school-children (7-13/100000 per year). Significant differences between males and females were not revealed. Among the Austrian federal states, Vienna was found To jut out (6.8/100000 per ye ar), probably due to its high proportion of immigrants from high-endemic re gions. Hepatitis B: Values of SHR were found to be stable with about 3/1000 00 per year. On age classes, rates increased rapidly in adolescents, reache d the peak in young adults (aged 20 to 29 years: 5/100000 per year) and, th en, decreased slowly. Males were slightly but not significantly more affect ed than females. interestingly a respectable number of young children (aged 0 to 4 years) were hospitalized in 1997 and 1998 (1998. 4.4/100000). Compa ring the Austrian federal states, Vorarlberg (6.4/10000 per year) and Vienn a (4.5/100000 per year) yielded the highest values of SHR. Hepatitis C: In the years observed, values of SHR were ascending successively from 6/100000 (1996) to 9,7/100000 (1998). On age classes, the highest risk of hospitali zation was found for adults aged between 35 and 74 years (10 - 20/100 000 p er year). Among the Austrian federal states, values of SHR differed conside rably; Salzburg (15.1/10000 per year) and Karnten (Carinthia) (12.7/100000 per year) were found to yield the highest values.