Introduction: Bleeding esophageal varices (BEV) is a life-threatening condition historically associated with high mortality. Recent epidemiologic data stratified by sex and race on hospital outcomes over the past decade are lacking. Our study aimed to evaluate 10-year trends in sociodemographic differences in patients hospitalized for BEV among adults in the U.S. Methods: This retrospective longitudinal study involved BEV hospitalizations in the U.S. using the National Inpatient Sample collected from 2010 to 2019. The outcomes evaluated in this study were sociodemographic differences in inpatient mortality rate, mean length of hospital stay (LOS), and mean total hospital charges (THC). We used Stata® Version 17 software (StataCorp, Texas, USA) and Joinpoint Regression Program, Version 4.9.1.0, for data analysis. We set a p-value of , 0.05 for statistical significance throughout the study (Figure). Results: From 2010 to 2019, there were 50,017 hospitalizations with a primary diagnosis of BEV. The BEV hospitalization appears to be highest among middle-aged whites, those with Medicare insurance, and hospitalization at large urban non-teaching centers. From 2010 to 2019, the BEV admission rate increased from 127 to 178 per million adult hospitalizations. Joinpoint analysis showed an average annual percent change of 6.2% (95% CI 4.4 -8.2, p, 0.001). Over the period, mortality was 5.7% in males compared to 4.4% in females, 4.7% in Whites, 7.9% in Blacks, 5.0% in Hispanics, 5.8% in the low-income quartile, and 5.3% in the high-income quartile. Among the groups, only Hispanics significantly decreased mortality over the study period.
Conclusion:The findings of this retrospective study suggest that the 10-year trend in mortality rate and LOS for BEV hospitalizations remain primarily unchanged. However, there was a significant increase in total hospital charges. Blacks, Males, and low-income quartile patients were likelier to have higher mortality rates from BEV than their comparison groups.
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