Shih-Chao Kang, Shinn-Jang Hwang, Yu-Sheng Chang, Chung-Tei Chou, Chang-Youh Tsai Table I. The prevalence and incidence of SLE in 2005 and 2006 in Taiwan Population 22,722,559 22,814,639 Identified cases (cases/105) 14,995 15,753 15,753 16,444 Date (year-month-day) 2005-1-1 2005-12-31 2006-1-1 2006-12-31 – not applicable Items Mean age [years]* Mean hospital stay [days] Gender (male/female) Hospice care (yes/no) Table II. Demographic characteristics of patients with SLE who died in or just after the last admission dur- ing 2005-2007 (N = 302) Counts [%] 45.8 ±18.5 20.4 ±18.1 41/261 8/294 4 (1.3) 33 (10.9) 95 (31.5) 119 (39.4) 27 (9.0) 14 (4.6) 6 (2.0) 4 (1.3) Departments to which admissions were assigned Family medicine Internal medicine (general internal) Internal medicine (rheumatology) Internal medicine (other specialties) Surgery Pediatrics Neurology Other sections *The subjects’ median age is 44 years old Results From 2005 to 2007, a total of 22,484 hospital dis- charges regarding patients with SLE were record- ed; three hundred and two mortality discharges ful- filling the criteria for this study were included. The total number of patients holding a catastrophic cer- tificate with a code of 710.0 during 2005 to 2006 was retrieved. No case was registered as suicide as the result of end-of-life hospitalization. As shown in Table I, estimated incidence and prevalence of Prevalence New cases 69.33 72.08 758 691 Incidence (cases/105) 3.34 3.03 SLE during these two years were 3.34/105, 3.03/105 and 69.33/105, 72.08/105 respectively. Table II shows the demographic characteristics of these dead patients with SLE (N = 302). The majority of patients were young to middle-aged (45.8 ±18.5 years) women (86.4%), who were admit- ted to non-hospice (acute) wards (97.4%) affiliat- ed to Internal Medicine (81.8%; including rheuma- tology, which accounted for 31.5% of all subjects). The average inpatient cost for each admission, its detailed items and ratios to the total costs, are listed in Table III. Drug prescriptions represented the major- ity of the total cost of hospitalization (21.7 ±11.5%), followed by laboratory examinations (12.4 ±7.6%). Table IV lists the major comorbidities. Sep- sis/bacteremia (42.1%) and acute respiratory failure (38.7%) were the most common acute comorbidi- ties and nephropathy/nephritis (35.1%) accounted for the majority of chronic comorbidities. Among 27 patients with co-existing cancers, eight received hospice care. Gynecological cancers (5 subjects, 18.5% of those with cancers; 1.7% of the total), lung cancers (4 subjects, 14.8% of those with cancers; 1.3% of the total), colorectal cancers, leukemia/lym- phoma and metastatic cancer with unknown origin (3 subjects in each category, 11.1% of those with can- cers; 1.0% of the total) accounted for approximate- ly half of those with co-existing cancers. As demonstrated in Table V, elderly patients tend- ed to be men (B = 1.022, OR = 2.778) and to have DM (B = 1.935, OR = 6.926) and ALRC (B = 0.880, OR = 2.411) more frequently but to have nephropathy/ nephritis less frequently (B = –0.974, OR = 0.377) as analyzed by multivariate logistic regression. Nephropa- Table III. Costs of the end-of-life hospitalization incurred for patients with SLE during 2005-2007 (N = 302) Items Laboratory tests Radiological examinations Blood products for transfusion Drug prescriptions Total *USD, United States dollars Hemodialysis (excluding peritoneal dialysis) Costs [USD] 964.7 ±935.1 276.9 ±375.4 429.9 ±819.5 1,204.5 ±2115.7 2,224.4 ±2929.0 9,530.2 ±10354.2 Ratio to total costs [%] 12.4 ±7.6 3.7 ±5.8 3.7 ±6.3 9.7 ±9.6 21.7 ±11.5 100 692 Arch Med Sci 4, August / 2012