AHRQ Stats: Hospital Stays for Teen Pregnancy

Hospital stays for teen pregnancy, delivery and post-delivery care decreased 47 percent from 2000 to 2012, from 196,200 stays to 104,700 stays over the 12-year time period. (Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Statistical Brief #187: Overview of Hospital Stays for Children in the United States, 2012.)

Overview of Hospital Stays for Children in the United States, 2012

Whitney P. Witt, Ph.D. M.P.H., Audrey J. Weiss, Ph.D., and Anne Elixhauser, Ph.D.

Highlights

In 2012 there were nearly 5.9 million hospital stays for children in the United States, of which 3.9 million were neonatal stays and 104,700 were maternal stays for pregnant teens.

Between 2000 and 2012, the number of neonatal stays (births) fluctuated around 4.0 million stays, reaching a high of 4.3 million in 2006. Hospital stays for teen pregnancies decreased by 47 percent over the 12-year period.

In 2012, Medicaid covered over half (51.6 percent) of nonneonatal and nonmaternal stays for children and about a quarter (26.4 percent) of stays for adults aged 18-44 years. In contrast, 2.7 percent of stays for children were uninsured compared with 16.9 percent of stays for adults aged 18-44 years.

From 2000 to 2012, the proportion of hospital stays for children paid by Medicaid increased by 33 percent, and the proportion paid by private insurance decreased by 21 percent.

For most conditions, the rate of hospitalization for children decreased or remained relatively unchanged from 2000 to 2012. Only skin conditions showed an increase in rate of hospitalization (35.6 percent). Substantial decreases in rates of hospitalization over the 12-year period were observed for HIV infection (89.9 percent) and substance abuse (60.1 percent).

Respiratory diagnoses—pneumonia, acute bronchitis, and asthma; mood disorders; appendicitis; and epilepsy/ convulsions were the most common specific conditions for which children were hospitalized.