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Despite the remarkable health achievements of Japan's universal health coverage since 1961, along with numerous social programs to ensure financial protection, a growing proportion of the older population reportedly experiences financial hardship for essential health care. The socio-behavioral and economic situation of the households in need and the effective policy interventions remain unknown. To identify the reasons behind older persons' financial hardship and the effective policy interventions, we performed a questionnaire survey of social workers in all hospitals, local government offices and social service agencies across six prefectures in Kansai region. Data from 553 respondents revealed that the financial difficulties related to health care are often closely intertwined with social and mental health hardships experienced by older people and their families. Notably, potentially helpful programs including 'free/low-cost medical treatment program' and the adult guardianship system for dementia were infrequently used. Moreover, male, social workers at local offices/agencies, and less than 10 years' professional experience associated with infrequent use of key protective programs. To close the gap between policy and practice, policies should focus on clients' daily living needs, and new frontline social workers should receive lifelong training that incorporates their own backgrounds, experiences, and values, including the use of anti-oppressive gerontological approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Living‐donor liver transplantation (LDLT) is a highly effective life‐saving procedure; however, it requires substantial medical resources, and the cost‐effectiveness of LDLT versus conservative management (CM) for adult patients with end‐stage liver disease (ESLD) remains unclear in Japan. Methods: We performed a cost‐effectiveness analysis using the Diagnostic Procedure Combination (DPC) data from the nationwide database of the DPC research group. We selected adult patients (18 years or older) who were admitted or discharged between 2010 and 2021 with a diagnosis of ESLD with Child–Pugh class C or B. A decision tree and Markov model were constructed, and all event probabilities were computed in 3‐month cycles over a 10‐year period. The willingness‐to‐pay per quality‐adjusted life‐year (QALY) was set at 5 million Japanese yen (JPY) (49,801 US dollars [USD]) from the perspective of the public health‐care payer. Results: After propensity score matching, we identified 1297 and 111,849 patients in the LDLT and CM groups, respectively. The incremental cost‐effectiveness ratio for LDLT versus CM for Child–Pugh classes C and B was 2.08 million JPY/QALY (20,708 USD/QALY) and 5.24 million JPY/QALY (52,153 USD/QALY), respectively. The cost‐effectiveness acceptability curves showed the probabilities of being below the willingness‐to‐pay of 49,801 USD/QALY as 95.4% in class C and 48.5% in class B. Tornado diagrams revealed all variables in class C were below 49,801 USD/QALY while their ranges included or exceeded 49,801 USD/QALY in class B. Conclusions: Living‐donor liver transplantation for adult patients with Child–Pugh class C was cost‐effective compared with CM, whereas LDLT versus CM for class B patients was not cost‐effective in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The present study aimed to investigate the postoperative mortality due to all surgeries at the prefectural level using a nationwide diagnosis procedure combination (DPC) database in Japan and to evaluate the data according to temporal changes and regional differences. Methods: Data were provided in accordance with the guidelines indicated on the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, Japan. The number of cases and in-hospital mortality were calculated for each representative surgery for each hospitalization according to fiscal year of discharge from 2011 to 2018 and according to prefecture. Values of ≥10 in each aggregated data cell were presented. Results and discussion: The aggregated result data contain 474,154 records, with about 2,000 different surgical codes. More than 10 mortalities were recorded in only 16,890 data cells, which can be used in the mortality analysis. In the analyses of artificial head insertion, cerebral aneurysm neck clipping, coronary artery and aortic bypass grafting, and tracheotomy, regional differences and a declining trend were observed in some categories. Conclusion: In addition to considering categories that can be used in the analysis, careful consideration must be given to the inclusion of background context such as the quality of care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, guidance ("Japanese Guide") has been published by a working group of several academic societies and announced by the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare. Steroids as a candidate treatment for COVID-19 were noted in the Japanese Guide. However, the prescription details for steroids, and whether the Japanese Guide changed its clinical practice, were unclear. This study aimed to examine the impact of the Japanese Guide on the trends in the prescription of steroids for COVID-19 inpatients in Japan. We selected our study population using Diagnostic Procedure Combination (DPC) data from hospitals participating in the Quality Indicator/Improvement Project (QIP). The inclusion criteria were patients discharged from hospital between January 2020 and December 2020, who had been diagnosed with COVID-19, and were aged 18 years or older. The epidemiological characteristics of cases and the proportion of steroid prescriptions were described on a weekly basis. The same analysis was performed for subgroups classified by disease severity. The study population comprised 8603 cases (410 severe cases, 2231 moderate II cases, and 5962 moderate I/mild cases). The maximum proportion of cases prescribed with dexamethasone increased remarkably from 2.5 to 35.2% in the study population before and after week 29 (July 2020), when dexamethasone was included in the guidance. These increases were 7.7% to 58.7% in severe cases, 5.0% to 57.2% in moderate II cases, and 1.1% to 19.2% in moderate I/mild cases. Although the proportion of cases prescribed prednisolone and methylprednisolone decreased in moderate II and moderate I/mild cases, it remained high in severe cases. We showed the trends of steroid prescriptions in COVID-19 inpatients. The results showed that guidance can influence drug treatment provided during an emerging infectious disease pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: A research subgroup was established by the Japanese Society of Gastroenterological Surgery to improve the health care quality in the Chushikoku area of Western Japan. Methods: The records of four surgical procedures were extracted from the Japanese National Clinical Database and analyzed retrospectively to establish the association between hospital characteristics, defined using a combination of hospital case-volume and patients' hospital travel distance, and the incidences of perioperative complications of ≥ Grade 3 of the Clavien–Dindo classification after gastroenterological surgery. Results: This study analyzed 11,515 cases of distal gastrectomy for gastric cancer, 4,705 cases of total gastrectomy for gastric cancer, 4,996 cases of right hemicolectomy for colon cancer, and 5,243 cases of lower anterior resection for rectal cancer, with composite outcome incidences of 5.6%, 10.2%, 5.5%, and 10.7%, respectively. After adjusting for patient characteristics and surgical procedures, no association was identified between the hospital category and surgical outcomes. Conclusion: The findings of our study of the Chushikoku region did not provide positive support for the consolidation and centralization of hospitals, based solely on hospital case volume. Our grouping was unique in that we included patient travel distance in the analysis, but further investigations from other perspectives are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Maintaining critical care for non-Coronavirus-disease-2019 (non-COVID-19) patients is a key pillar of tackling the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to reveal the medium-term impacts of the COVID-19 epidemic on case volumes and quality of intensive care for critically ill non-COVID-19 patients. Methods: Administrative data were used to investigate the trends in case volumes of admissions to intensive care units (ICUs) compared with the previous years. Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) of non-COVID-19 ICU patients were calculated in each wave of the COVID-19 epidemic in Japan. Results: The ratios of new ICU admissions of non-COVID-19 patients to those in the corresponding months before the epidemic: 21% in May 2020, 8% in August 2020, 9% in February 2021, and 14% in May 2021, approximately concurrent with the peaks in COVID-19 infections. The decrease was greatest for new ICU admissions of non-COVID patients receiving invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) on the first day of ICU admission: 26%, 15%, 19%, and 19% in the first, second, third, and fourth waves, respectively. No statistically significant change in SMR was observed in any wave of the epidemic; SMRs were 0.990 (95% uncertainty interval (UI), 0.962–1.019), 0.979 (95% UI, 0.953–1.006), 0.996 (95% UI, 0.980–1.013), and 0.989 (95% UI, 0.964–1.014), in the first, second, third, and fourth waves of the epidemic, respectively. Conclusions: Compared to the previous years, the number of non-COVID-19 ICU patients continuously decreased over the medium term during the COVID-19 epidemic. The decrease in case volumes was larger in non-COVID-19 ICU patients initially receiving IMV than those undergoing other initial treatments. The standardized in-hospital mortality of non-COVID-19 ICU patients did not change in any waves of the epidemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aging world population requires a sustainable and high-quality healthcare system. To examine the efficiency of medical cooperation, medical provider and physician networks were constructed using patient claims data. Previous studies have shown that these networks contain information on medical cooperation. However, the usage patterns of multiple medical providers in a series of medical services have not been considered. In addition, these studies used only general network features to represent medical cooperation, but their expressive ability was low. To overcome these limitations, we analyzed the medical provider network to examine its overall contribution to the quality of healthcare provided by cooperation between medical providers in a series of medical services. This study focused on: i) the method of feature extraction from the network, ii) incorporation of the usage pattern of medical providers, and iii) expressive ability of the statistical model. Femoral neck fractures were selected as the target disease. To build the medical provider networks, we analyzed the patient claims data from a single prefecture in Japan between January 1, 2014 and December 31, 2019. We considered four types of models. Models 1 and 2 use node strength and linear regression, with Model 2 also incorporating patient age as an input. Models 3 and 4 use feature representation by node2vec with linear regression and regression tree ensemble, a machine learning method. The results showed that medical providers with higher levels of cooperation reduce the duration of hospital stay. The overall contribution of the medical cooperation to the duration of hospital stay extracted from the medical provider network using node2vec is approximately 20%, which is approximately 20 times higher than the model using strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The suppression of the first wave of COVID-19 in Japan is assumedly attributed to people's increased risk perception after acquiring information from the government and media reports. In this study, going out in public amidst the spread of COVID-19 infections was investigated by examining new polymerase chain reaction (PCR) positive cases of COVID-19 and its relationship to four indicators of people going out in public (the people flow, the index of web searches for going outside, the number of times people browse restaurants, and the number of hotel guests, from the Regional Economic and Social Analysis System (V-RESAS). Two waves of COVID-19 infections were examined using cross-correlation analysis. In the first wave, all four indicators of going out changed to be opposite the change in new PCR positive cases, showing a lag period of –1 to +6 weeks. In the second wave, the same relationship was only observed for the index of web searches for going outside, and two indicators showed the positive lag period of +6 to +12 weeks after the change in new PCR positive cases. Moreover, each indicator in the second wave changed differently compared to the first wave. The complexity of people's behaviors around going out increased in the second wave, when policies and campaigns were implemented and people's attitudes were thought to have changed. In conclusion, the results suggest that policies may have influenced people's mobility, rather than the number of new PCR positive cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected health care systems globally. The aim of our study is to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the number of hospital admissions for ischemic stroke by severity in Japan. Methods: We analysed administrative (Diagnosis Procedure Combination—DPC) data for cases of inpatients aged 18 years and older who were diagnosed with ischemic stroke and admitted during the period April 1 2018 to June 27 2020. Levels of change of the weekly number of inpatient cases with ischemic stroke diagnosis after the declaration of state of emergency were assessed using interrupted time-series (ITS) analysis. The numbers of patients with various characteristics and treatment approaches were compared. We also performed an ITS analysis for each group ("independent" or "dependent") divided based on components of activities of daily living (ADL) and level of consciousness at hospital admission. Results: A total of 170,294 cases in 567 hospitals were included. The ITS analysis showed a significant decrease in the weekly number of ischemic stroke cases hospitalized (estimated decrease: −156 cases; 95% confidence interval (CI): −209 to −104), which corresponds to −10.4% (95% CI: −13.6 to −7.1). The proportion of decline in the independent group (−21.3%; 95% CI: −26.0 to −16.2) was larger than that in the dependent group (−8.6%; 95% CI: −11.7 to −5.4). Conclusions: Our results show a marked reduction in hospital admissions due to ischemic stroke after the declaration of the state of emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic. The independent cases were affected more in proportion than dependent cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has caused unprecedented challenges for the medical staff worldwide, especially for those in hospitals where COVID-19-positive patients are hospitalized. The announcement of COVID-19 hospital restrictions by the Japanese government has led to several limitations in hospital care, including an increased use of physical restraints, which could affect the care of elderly dementia patients. However, few studies have empirically validated the impact of physical restraint use during the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to evaluate the impact of regulatory changes, consequent to the pandemic, on physical restraint use among elderly dementia patients in acute care hospitals. Methods: In this retrospective study, we extracted the data of elderly patients (aged > 64 years) who received dementia care in acute care hospitals between January 6, 2019, and July 4, 2020. We divided patients into two groups depending on whether they were admitted to hospitals that received COVID-19-positive patients. We calculated descriptive statistics to compare the trend in 2-week intervals and conducted an interrupted time-series analysis to validate the changes in the use of physical restraint. Results: In hospitals that received COVID-19-positive patients, the number of patients who were physically restrained per 1,000 hospital admissions increased after the government's announcement, with a maximum incidence of 501.4 per 1,000 hospital admissions between the 73rd and 74th week after the announcement. Additionally, a significant increase in the use of physical restraints for elderly dementia patients was noted (p = 0.004) in hospitals that received COVID-19-positive patients. Elderly dementia patients who required personal care experienced a significant increase in the use of physical restraints during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion: Understanding the causes and mechanisms underlying an increased use of physical restraints for dementia patients can help design more effective care protocols for similar future situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has caused unprecedented challenges for surgical staffs to minimize exposure to COVID-19 or save medical resources without harmful patient outcomes, in accordance with the statement of each surgical society. No research has empirically validated declines in surgical volume in Japan, based on the usage of surgical triage. We aimed to identify whether the announcement of surgical priorities by each Japanese surgical society may have affected the surgical volume decline during the 1st wave of this pandemic. Methods: We extracted 490,719 available cases of patients aged > 15 years who underwent elective major surgeries between July 1, 2018, and June 30, 2020. After the categorization of surgical specialities, we calculated descriptive statistics to compare the year-over-year trend and conducted an interrupted time series analysis to validate the decline of each surgical procedure. Results: Monthly surgical cases of eight surgical specialities, especially ophthalmology and ear/nose/throat surgeries, decreased from April 2020 and reached a minimum in May 2020. An interrupted time series analysis showed no significant trends in oncological and critical surgeries. Conclusion: Non-critical surgeries showed obvious and statistically significant declines in case volume during the 1st wave of the COVID-19 pandemic according to the statement of each surgical society in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many countries have implemented school closures as part of social distancing measures intended to control the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The aim of this study was to assess the early impact of nationwide school closure (March–May 2020) and social distancing for COVID-19 on the number of inpatients with major childhood infectious diseases in Japan. Using data from the Diagnosis Procedure Combination system in Japan, we identified patients aged 15 years or younger with admissions for a diagnosis of upper respiratory tract infection (URTI), lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI), influenza, gastrointestinal infection (GII), appendicitis, urinary tract infection (UTI), or skin and soft tissue infection (SSTI) between July 2018 and June 2020. Changes in the trend of the weekly number of inpatients between the two periods were assessed using interrupted time-series analysis. A total of 75,053 patients in 210 hospitals were included. The overall weekly number of inpatients was decreased by 52.5%, 77.4%, and by 83.4% in the last week of March, April, and May 2020, respectively, when compared on a year-on-year basis. The estimated impact was a reduction of 581 (standard error 42.9) inpatients per week in the post-school-closure period (p < 0.001). The main part of the reduction was for pre-school children. Remarkable decreases in the number of inpatients with URI, LRTI, and GII were observed, while there were relatively mild changes in the other groups. Conclusion: We confirmed a marked reduction in the number of inpatients with childhood non-COVID-19 acute infections in the post-school-closure period. What is Known: • Most countries have implemented social distancing measures to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). • A large decrease in pediatric emergency visits has been reported from several countries after the social distancing. What is New: • Based on administrative claims data, a marked reduction in the number of inpatients for childhood non-COVID-19 acute infections was found in the post-school-closure period in Japan. • The magnitude of the reduction was different between the disease groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: An accurate understanding of the current state of end-of-life care is important for healthcare planning. The objectives of this study were to examine the trajectories of end-of-life medical and long-term care expenditures and associated factors.Methods: This was a retrospective longitudinal study using a large-scale linked database of medical and long-term care claims-National Health Insurance, Advanced Elderly Medical Insurance, and long-term care insurance-covering Prefecture A in Japan. Patients aged ≥70 years who died between April 1, 2016, and March 31, 2017, were included (N = 16,084 patients; mean age = 85.1 ± 7.5 years; 7804 men (48.5%) and 8280 women (51.5%)). The outcome measures were medical expenditures (inpatient, outpatient, and prescription), long-term care expenditures, and total healthcare expenditures (the sum of medical and long-term care expenditures) during the 60 months before the date of death. We calculated each patient's monthly medical and long-term care expenditures for 60 months before the date of death and applied group-based trajectory modeling to identify distinct trajectories. Factors associated with spending trajectories were examined via multinomial logistic regression analyses. Explanatory variables included age, sex, diseases, and the medical services used.Results: We identified six distinct spending trajectories for the total healthcare expenditures: high persistent (45.6%), medium-to-high persistent (26.1%), early rise then high persistent (9.8%), late rise (6.4%), low persistent then very late rise (i.e., when spending starts increasing later than "late rise"; 6.4%), and progressive increase (5.7%). Factors associated with the high-persistent trajectory were chronic illnesses, various organ failures, neurodegenerative diseases, fractures, and tube feeding. The trajectory pattern of medical expenditures was similar to that of total healthcare expenditures; however, a different pattern was seen for long-term care expenditures.Conclusions: Regarding combined medical and long-term care spending of the last 5 years, most patients belonged to a pattern in which the healthcare expenditures remained high, and a combination of multiple factors contributed to these patterns. This finding can offer healthcare providers a longer-term perspective on end-of-life care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intra-operative autologous blood donation is a blood conservation technique with limited evidence. We evaluated the association between intra-operative autologous blood donation and decrease in peri-operative transfusion in cardiovascular surgery based on evidence from a Japanese administrative database. We extracted the data of patients who had undergone cardiovascular surgery from the Diagnosis Procedure Combination database in Japan (2016–2019). Based on the surgery type, we examined the association of intra-operative autologous blood donation with the transfusion rate and amount of blood used in cardiac and aortic surgeries using multilevel propensity score matching. We enrolled 32,433 and 4,267 patients who underwent cardiac and aortic surgeries and received 5.0% and 6.7% intra-operative autologous blood donation with mean volumes of 557.68 mL and 616.96 mL, respectively. The red blood cell transfusion rates of the control and intra-operative autologous blood donation groups were 60.6% and 38.4%, respectively, in the cardiac surgery cohort (p <.001) and 91.4%, and 83.8%, respectively, in the aortic surgery cohort (p =.037). The transfusion amounts for the control and intra-operative autologous blood donation groups were 5.9 and 3.5 units of red blood cells, respectively, for cardiac surgery patients (p <.001) and 11.9 and 7.9 units, respectively, for aortic surgery patients (p <.001). Intra-operative autologous blood donation could reduce the transfusion rate or amount of red blood cells and fresh frozen plasma for patients undergoing index cardiovascular surgery and could be an effective blood transfusion strategy in cardiovascular surgery for Japanese patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The goals of the National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) of Japan include "implementing appropriate infection prevention and control" and "appropriate use of antimicrobials," which are relevant to healthcare facilities. Specifically, linking efforts between existing infection control teams and antimicrobial stewardship programs was suggested to be important. Previous studies reported that human resources, such as full-time equivalents of infection control practitioners, were related to improvements in antimicrobial stewardship.Methods: We posted questionnaires to all teaching hospitals (n = 1017) regarding hospital countermeasures against AMR and infections. To evaluate changes over time, surveys were conducted twice (1st survey: Nov 2016, 2nd survey: Feb 2018). A latent transition analysis (LTA) was performed to identify latent statuses, which refer to underlying subgroups of hospitals, and effects of the number of members in infection control teams per bed on being in the better statuses.Results: The number of valid responses was 678 (response rate, 66.7%) for the 1st survey and 559 (55.0%) for the 2nd survey. More than 99% of participating hospitals had infection control teams, with differences in activity among hospitals. Roughly 70% had their own intervention criteria for antibiotics therapies, whereas only about 60 and 50% had criteria established for the use of anti-methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus antibiotics and broad-spectrum antibiotics, respectively. Only 50 and 40% of hospitals conducted surveillance of catheter-associated urinary tract infections and ventilator-associated pneumonia, respectively. Less than 50% of hospitals used maximal barrier precautions for central line catheter insertion. The LTA identified five latent statuses. The membership probability of the most favorable status in the 2nd study period was slightly increased from the 1st study period (23.6 to 25.3%). However, the increase in the least favorable status was higher (26.3 to 31.8%). Results of the LTA did not support a relationship between increasing the number of infection control practitioners per bed, which is reportedly related to improvements in antimicrobial stewardship, and being in more favorable latent statuses.Conclusions: Our results suggest the need for more comprehensive antimicrobial stewardship programs and increased surveillance activities for healthcare-associated infections to improve antimicrobial stewardship and infection control in hospitals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In response to the coronavirus diseases 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the Japanese government declared a state of emergency on April 7, 2020. Six days earlier, the Japan Surgical Society had recommended postponing elective surgical procedures. Along with the growing public fear of COVID-19, hospital visits in Japan decreased. Methods: Using claims data from the Quality Indicator/Improvement Project (QIP) database, this study aimed to clarify the impact of the first wave of the pandemic, considered to be from March to May 2020, on case volume and claimed hospital charges in acute care hospitals during this period. To make year-over-year comparisons, we considered cases from July 2018 to June 2020. Results: A total of 2,739,878 inpatient and 53,479,658 outpatient cases from 195 hospitals were included. In the year-over-year comparisons, total claimed hospital charges decreased in April, May, June 2020 by 7%, 14%, and 5%, respectively, compared to the same months in 2019. Our results also showed that per-case hospital charges increased during this period, possibly to compensate for the reduced case volumes. Regression results indicated that the hospital charges in April and May 2020 decreased by 6.3% for hospitals without COVID-19 patients. For hospitals with COVID-19 patients, there was an additional decrease in proportion with the length of hospital stay of COVID-19 patients including suspected cases. The mean additional decrease per COVID-19 patient was estimated to 5.5 million JPY. Conclusion: It is suggested that the hospitals treating COVID-19 patients were negatively incentivized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Antipsychotics are commonly prescribed in high doses in combination with multiple psychotropic drugs. This study focused on the high‐dose antipsychotic prescriptions in patients with schizophrenia, while aiming to identify their associations with patients' characteristics and concurrent psychotropic prescriptions. Methods: This cross‐sectional study used claims data from a prefecture in Japan, between October 2014 and March 2015, to investigate antipsychotic prescriptions in adult outpatients with schizophrenia. The objective variable was the presence/absence of a high‐dose prescription. The explanatory variables included sex, age (category), presence of comorbid conditions, and the use of psychiatrist's therapy. Results: After exclusion, a total of 13 471 patients with schizophrenia were analyzed. The frequency of high‐dose prescriptions was higher in men, with chlorpromazine‐equivalent values highest in the age ranges of 45‐54 and 35‐44 years for men and women, respectively. Patients aged below 65 years with cerebrovascular diseases showed a decrease in high‐dose prescriptions. There was a high frequency of polypharmacy psychotropic drug use in combination with a high‐dose antipsychotic prescription in patients aged below 65 years. Conclusion: High‐dose antipsychotics are often used in combination with several psychotropic agents in patients with schizophrenia. Our findings emphasize the need to evaluate the prescribing behavior of physicians to avoid high‐dose antipsychotic prescriptions for improved patient care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The prognosis of pneumonia in patients with advanced stage chronic kidney disease (CKD) remains unimproved for years. We attempt to develop a simple and more useful scoring system for predicting in-hospital mortality for advanced CKD patients with pneumonia. Methods: Using the Diagnosis Procedure Combination database, we identified the in-hospital adult patients both with a record of pneumonia and stage 5 or 5D CKD as a comorbidity on admission between April 1, 2012 and March 31, 2016. Predictive variable selection was analyzed by multivariable logistic regression analysis, stepwise method, LASSO method and random forest method, and then develop a new simple scoring system seeking for highest c-statistics combination of variables in one sample data set for model development. Finally, we compared c-statistics of univariate logistic regression about new scoring system with c-statistics about "A-DROP" in the other sample data set. Result: We identified 8402 patients in 707 hospitals, and the total in-hospital mortality was 11.0% (437 patients) in development data set. Seven variables were selected, which includes age (male ≥ 70 years, female ≥ 75 years), respiratory failure, orientation disturbance, low blood pressure, the need of assistance in feeding or bowel control, severe or moderate thinness and CRP 200 mg/L or extent of consolidation on chest X-ray ≥ 2/3 of one lung. The c-statistics of univariate logistic regression was 0.8017 using seven variables, while that was 0.7372 using "A-DROP" Conclusion: In advanced CKD patients, if we select appropriate variables for predicting in-hospital mortality, simple scoring system may have better discrimination than "A-DROP". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To reduce hospitalization costs, it is necessary to prevent avoidable hospitalization as well as avoidable readmission. This study aimed to examine the relationship between clinic physician workforce and unplanned readmission for ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs).Methods: The present study was a retrospective database research using nationwide administrative claims database of acute care hospitals in Japan. We identified patients aged ≥65 years who were admitted with ACSCs from home and discharged to home between April 2014 and December 2014 (n = 127,209). The primary outcome was unplanned readmission for ACSCs within 30 or 90 days of hospital discharge. A hierarchical logistic regression model was developed with patients at the first level and regions (secondary medical service areas) at the second level.Results: The 30-day and 90-day ACSC-related readmission rates were 3.7 and 4.6%, respectively. The high full-time equivalents (FTEs) of clinic physicians per 100,000 population were significantly associated with decreased odds ratios for 30-day and 90-day ACSC-related readmissions. This association did not change even when sensitivity analyses was conducted.Conclusions: Among patients who had history of admission for ACSCs, greater clinic physician workforce prevented the incidence of readmission because of ACSCs. Regional medical plans to prevent avoidable readmissions should incorporate policy interventions that focus on the clinic physician workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Object: The appropriate use of antiemetics is important for the prevention of chemotherapy‐induced nausea and vomiting (CINV); however, little is known about the rate of concordance with antiemetic guidelines for CINV in the field of pediatric, adolescent, and young adult. Methods: Using the Diagnosis Procedure Combination system in Japan, we identified patients <30 years of age who were diagnosed with cancer between July 2010 and March 2016. We have assessed concordance with the ASCO antiemetic guidelines for each emetic risk category of chemotherapeutic drugs. Furthermore, we have assessed the risk factors of discordance with the antiemetic guidelines using a logistic regression. Results: In total, 21 106 patients who underwent chemotherapy were included. The rates of concordance with the guidelines in each emetic risk category of chemotherapeutic drugs were 51.1% in high risk, ≥18 years of age; 21.5% in high risk, <18 years of age; 32.1% in moderate risk; 52.0% in low risk; and 51.6% in minimal risk. The main reason for the discordance was underuse of antiemetics, especially steroids. The factors for discordance were younger age, use of moderate and high emetic risk chemotherapeutic drugs, hematological malignancy, and brain tumor. Conclusion: There is substantial scope to improve the antiemetic practice and reduce the risk of discordance with the antiemetic guidelines in pediatric, adolescent, and young adult patients. The risk factors are different from those in adults. Further investigations to evaluate the causes of discordance are warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We aimed to quantify the personal economic burden of dementia care in Japan according to residence type.Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted on 3841 caregivers of people with dementia. An opportunity cost approach was used to calculate informal care costs. All costs and the observed/expected (OE) ratio of costs were adjusted using patient sex, age, and care-needs levels, and compared among the residence types.Results: The mean daily informal care time was 8.2 hours, and the mean monthly informal care costs for community-dwelling people with dementia were US$1559. The OE ratio for informal care costs in community-dwelling patients was higher than in institutionalized patients.Conclusion: The inclusion of informal care costs reduced the differences in total personal costs among the residence types. The economic burden of informal care should be considered when quantifying dementia care costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To comparatively examine in-hospital mortality among different underweight body mass index (BMI) categories in pancreatic cancer patients after pancreatectomy in Japan.Methods: We conducted a large-scale multi-center retrospective cohort study of adult patients with pancreatic cancer who underwent pancreatectomy between April 1, 2010 and March 31, 2016. Patients were classified according to BMI as follows: normal BMI (18.50-24.99 kg/m2), mild thinness (17.00-18.49 kg/m2), moderate thinness (16.00-16.99 kg/m2), and severe thinness (< 16.00 kg/m2). A multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed with in-hospital mortality as the dependent variable and BMI groups as the main independent variable of interest.Results: We analyzed 6173 patients from 332 hospitals. The results showed that the severe thinness group had a longer postoperative hospital stay (34.4 ± 25.6 days) and higher incidence of postoperative pneumonia (5.5%) than the other groups. The generalized estimating equations accounted for patient demographics, surgical procedure, anesthetic technique, activities of daily living score, and Charlson comorbidity index as covariates. Relative to the normal BMI group, the odds ratios for in-hospital mortality were 0.57 (95% confidence interval: 0.26-1.24; P = 0.16) in the mild thinness group, 1.49 (0.64-3.48; P = 0.36) in the moderate thinness group, and 2.54 (1.05-6.08; P = 0.04) in the severe thinness group.Conclusion: Severe thinness was significantly associated with a higher risk of mortality, and extremely low BMI should be considered a risk factor in pancreatectomy patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and objective Little is known about the consequences of weekend admission on the quality of care in patients with severe community-acquired pneumonia. We compared the outcomes of weekend versus weekdays' admission for these patients on risk-adjusted mortality. Methods Using a large nationwide administrative database, we analysed patients with severe pneumonia who had been hospitalized in 1044 acute care hospitals between 2012 and 2013. We compared risk-adjusted in-hospital mortality of guideline-concordant care between patients admitted weekdays and patients admitted on weekends. Results The study sample comprised 17 342 patients admitted on weekdays and 6190 patients admitted on weekends. The mortality rate of the weekend admission group was significantly higher than that of the weekday admission group (23.7% vs 20.5%; P < 0.001). Even after adjusting for baseline patient severity and need for urgent care, weekend admissions were associated with higher mortality (odds ratio: 1.10; 95% confidence interval: 1.02-1.19). The implementation rates of guideline-concordant microbiological tests (including sputum cultures and urine antigen tests) were significantly lower in the weekend admission group. These tests were found to be associated with lower in-hospital mortality. Conclusion Our findings showed that weekend admission was associated with increased mortality in patients with severe community-acquired pneumonia in Japan. This may have been influenced by lower implementation of microbiological testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses research on generic drug prescribing and utilization in Japan. In addition to determining maximum potential of generic drug use, the study also intended to simulate cost reduction strategies within various health care sectors. It also reports study procedures performed including the evaluation of insurance claims submitted to the Japanese National Health Insurance (NHI) from January to March 2010, the calculation of drug usage data, and drug pricing analysis.

Background: Stroke and other cerebrovascular diseases are a major cause of death and disability. Predicting in-hospital mortality in ischaemic stroke patients can help to identify high-risk patients and guide treatment approaches. Chart reviews provide important clinical information for mortality prediction, but are laborious and limiting in sample sizes. Administrative data allow for large-scale multi-institutional analyses but lack the necessary clinical information for outcome research. However, administrative claims data in Japan has seen the recent inclusion of patient consciousness and disability information, which may allow more accurate mortality prediction using administrative data alone. The aim of this study was to derive and validate models to predict inhospital mortality in patients admitted for ischaemic stroke using administrative data. Methods: The sample consisted of 21,445 patients from 176 Japanese hospitals, who were randomly divided into derivation and validation subgroups. Multivariable logistic regression models were developed using 7- and 30-day and overall in-hospital mortality as dependent variables. Independent variables included patient age, sex, comorbidities upon admission, Japan Coma Scale (JCS) score, Barthel Index score, modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score, and admissions after hours and on weekends/public holidays. Models were developed in the derivation subgroup, and coefficients from these models were applied to the validation subgroup. Predictive ability was analysed using C-statistics; calibration was evaluated with Hosmer-Lem- eshow x2 tests. Results: All three models showed predictive abilities similar or surpassing that of chart review-based models. The C-statistics were highest in the 7-day in-hospital mortality prediction model, at 0.906 and 0.901 in the derivation and validation subgroups, respectively. For the 30-day in-hospital mortality prediction models, the C-statistics for the derivation and validation subgroups were 0.893 and 0.872, respectively; in overall in-hospital mortality prediction these values were 0.883 and 0.876. Conclusions: In this study, we have derived and validated in-hospital mortality prediction models for three different time spans using a large population of ischaemic stroke patients in a multi-institutional analysis. The recent inclusion of JCS, Barthel Index, and mRS scores in Japanese administrative data has allowed the prediction of in-hospital mortality with accuracy comparable to that of chart review analyses. The models developed using administrative data had consistently high predictive abilities for all models in both the derivation and validation subgroups. These results have implications in the role of administrative data in future mortality prediction analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) epidemiology varies widely across surgical procedures. At present, there are few epidemiologic reports regarding VTE in Japan. Japanese VTE prophylaxis guidelines recommend a risk-based approach based on previous epidemiologic statistics. VTE includes deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE). PE prevention is the main goal, although the relation between PE and DVT is still controversial. Methods: We collected administrative data for 1,016,496 surgical patients from 260 hospitals. We analyzed DVT and PE incidence and selected two subgroups for further analysis: gastroenterologic surgery and specific orthopedic surgery (high-frequency group). Results: Overall DVT incidence was 1947 (0.19%); and the PE incidence was 538 (0.05%). DVT case fatality rate was 3.44% (67/1947); that for PE was 22.86% (123/538). Both overall and subgroup incidences were comparable to those in previous reports. Subgroup analyses in the high-frequency group did not show a relation between DVT and PE. VTE prophylaxis did not show a relation between DVT and PE despite 99% adherence. Conclusions: Our results are consistent with established data regarding DVT and PE incidence. Administrative data available in Japan provides a powerful epidemiologic tool to characterize rare diseases such as DVT and PE. DVT is not a suitable quality indicator in Japan. However, PE is too rare to be considered a rate-based outcome indicator, and VTE prophylaxis is too widely applied to be used as a process indicator. VTE measurement is not a useful quality indicator in Japan to compare hospitals but provides a longitudinal self-survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Compliance with clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) remains insufficient around the world, despite frequent updates and continuing efforts to disseminate and implement these guidelines through a variety of strategies. We describe the current status of young resident physician practices towards CPGs and investigate the multiple factors associated with the active use of CPGs, including the physician's knowledge, attitudes, behaviours, CPG-related education received, and the hospital's IT infrastructures. The aim is to identify a more effective point for intervention to promote CPG implementation.Methods: We conducted a questionnaire survey among resident physicians working at 111 hospitals across Japan in 2015 and used results with hospital IT score data collected from a prior survey. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the determinants of frequent use of CPGs (defined at least once per week). The independent variables were selected based on physician demographics, clinical speciality and careers, daily knowledge and behaviour items, CPG-related education received, digital preference, and hospital IT score (high/medium/low), with and without interaction terms.Results: Responses from 535 resident physicians, at 61 hospitals, were analysed. The median hospital IT score was 6 out of a possible 10 points. Physicians who had learned about CPGs tended to work at hospitals with medium to high IT scores, had easier access to paywalled medical databases, and had better knowledge of the guideline network 'Minds'. In addition, these physicians tended to use CPGs electronically. A physician's behaviour towards using CPGs for therapeutic decision-making was strongly associated with frequent use of CPGs (odds ratio [95% CI] 6.1 [3.6-10.4]), which indicated that a physician's habit strongly promotes CPG use. Moreover, CPG-related education was associated with active use of CPGs (OR1.7 [1.1-2.5]). The interaction effects between individual digital preferences and higher hospital IT score were also observed for frequent CPG use (OR2.9 [0.9-8.8]).Conclusions: A physician's habitual behaviours, CPG-related education, and a combination of individual digital preference and superior hospital IT infrastructure are key to bridging the gap between the use and implementation of CPGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The number of inpatient community-acquired pneumonia cases decreased in the pandemic. • The number of inpatient cases decreased according to the severity of pneumonia. • The interrupted time series analysis showed a significant inpatient case reduction. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected all healthcare systems. This study aimed to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the number and severity of cases of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in Japan. Using claims data from the Quality Indicator/Improvement Project (QIP) database, urgent cases of inpatients for CAP from 01 August 2018 to 30 July 2020 were included. The monthly ratios of inpatient cases were compared from August 2018 to July 2019 and August 2019 to July 2020 as a year-over-year comparison. These ratios were also compared according to the "A-DROP" severity score, and an interrupted time series (ITS) analysis was performed to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the monthly number of inpatient cases. This study included a total of 67,900 inpatient cases for CAP in 262 hospitals. During the COVID-19 pandemic (defined as the period between March and July 2020) the number of inpatient cases for CAP drastically decreased compared with the same period in the previous year (–48.1%), despite a temporary reduction in the number of other urgent admissions. The number of inpatient cases decreased according to the severity of pneumonia. Milder cases showed a greater decrease in the year-over-year ratio than severe ones: mild –55.2%, moderate –45.8%, severe –39.4%, and extremely severe –33.2%. The ITS analysis showed that the COVID-19 pandemic significantly reduced the monthly number of inpatient cases for CAP (estimated decrease: –1233 cases; 95% CI –521 to –1955). This study showed a significant reduction in the number of inpatient cases for CAP during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. The milder cases showed a greater decrease in the year-over-year ratio of the number of inpatient cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We assessed the effect of rotavirus vaccination coverage on the number of inpatients with gastroenteritis of all ages in Japan. We identified patients admitted with all-cause gastroenteritis during 2011-2019 using data from the Diagnosis Procedure Combination system in Japan. We used generalized estimating equations with a Poisson distribution, using hospital codes as a cluster variable to estimate the impact of rotavirus vaccination coverage by prefecture on monthly numbers of inpatients with all-cause gastroenteritis. We analyzed 294,108 hospitalizations across 569 hospitals. Higher rotavirus vaccination coverage was associated with reduced gastroenteritis hospitalizations compared with the reference category of vaccination coverage <40% (e.g., for coverage >80%, adjusted incidence rate ratio was 0.87 [95% CI 0.83-0.90]). Our results show that achieving higher rotavirus vaccination coverage among infants could benefit the entire population by reducing overall hospitalizations for gastroenteritis for all age groups.

Although medical and long-term care expenditures for older adults are closely related, providing rigorous statistical analysis for their dynamic relationship is challenging. In this research, we propose a novel approach using the panel vector autoregression model to reveal the realized patterns of the interdependence. As an empirical application, we analyze monthly panel data on individuals in a city of Japan, where social insurance covers many formal services for long-term care. Our estimation results indicate the existence of intertemporal transition from expensive acute medical care to reasonable at-home medical care, then to at-home long-term care. Under this context, the enhancement of formal long-term care sector in Japan might have played an important role in the suppression of the total care cost in spite for its rapid aging over the past 2 decades. Additionally, we find that daycare plays multiple roles in Japanese long-term care, such as respite and rehabilitation, but there is no considerable transition from outpatient rehabilitation to daycare in the long-term care sector., (© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Durin g the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic, the total number of patients with any of the four major fragility fractures, including both inpatients and first-visit outpatients, began to decline shortly before the state of emergency was declared, rather than immediately after it was declared., Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the impact of public health measures in the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic on the occurrence of major fragility fractures (MFFs)., Methods: Patients aged 50 years or older who were hospitalized or had an initial visit as an outpatient for an MFF, defined as a proximal femoral fracture (PFF), vertebral fragility fracture (VFF), distal radius fracture (DRF), or a proximal humeral fracture (PHF), were included in this study. Three-phase interrupted time-series analyses were performed to evaluate the impact of the voluntary event cancellation request in late February 2020 and the emergency declaration in early April 2020 on changes in the total number of patients, including inpatients and first-visit outpatients., Results: A total of 166,560 patients with MFFs were included (92,767 PFFs, 26,158 VFFs, 33,869 DRFs, and 13,766 PHFs). From the end of February, in seven prefectures with high proportions of urbanization, decreasing trends were estimated for level changes and slope changes in the total number of patients with any of the four MFFs (level change: PFF; point estimate; - 13.5 (95% CI; - 43.4, 16.5), VFF; - 15.3 (- 32.2, 1.5), DRF; - 16.1 (- 39.9, 7.6), PHF; - 1.9 (- 13.6, 9.8), slope change: PFF; - 4.8 (- 14.0, 4.4), VFF; - 3.0 (- 8.1, 2.2), DRF; - 0.6 (- 7.9, 6.7), PHF; - 2.4 (- 6.0, 1.2))., Conclusion: The findings suggested that the total number of patients with any of the four MFFs did not begin to decline from early April 2020 after the state of emergency was declared but earlier, in late February 2020., (© 2023. International Osteoporosis Foundation and Bone Health and Osteoporosis Foundation.)

Objective: Establishing appropriate percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in stable angina pectoris (SAP) has become a distinctive performance measure worldwide. Clinical guidelines call for documenting ischaemia in patients with SAP prior to elective PCI. The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare introduced a new reimbursement policy in April 2018 to promote the appropriate and judicious implementation of PCI. The 2018 reimbursement changes clarified the required proof of ischaemia. Tests to evaluate functional ischaemia and coronary stenosis have been added as a requirement for reimbursement. We examined whether this reimbursement revision had an impact on PCI procedures for SAP in Japan., Methods: We used administrative claims data in Japan's Diagnosis Procedure Combination database from April 2014 through March 2020. We used interrupted time series analyses with a control to ascertain the impacts on elective PCI procedures before and after the Japanese reimbursement revision. The primary outcome was the change in elective PCI procedures per month. Emergent PCI procedures served as a control group., Results: A total of 773 240 PCI procedures were identified between April 2014 and March 2020: 388 817 and 180 462 elective PCIs before and after the reimbursement revision, respectively. After the 2018 reimbursement revision, significant trend changes were found in elective PCI procedures per month (-106.3, 95% CI -155.8 to -56.8, p<0.01), while the number of emergent PCIs remained stable throughout the study period., Conclusions: After revising the reimbursement tariff for elective PCIs in 2018, there was a significant reduction in elective PCI procedures per month., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Background: A serious shortage of cefazolin (CEZ) occurred in Japan in 2019. We compared the impact of the CEZ shortage on the selection of parenteral antibiotics at affected and non-affected hospitals., Methods: The data were extracted from a nationwide Japanese administrative database and included all hospitalized cases between April 2016 and December 2020. We defined 'hospitals with shortage' as those hospitals with a statistically significant decrease in the use of CEZ during the supply disruption period compared to the same months of the previous year; other hospitals as 'hospitals without shortage'. We determined the proportion of each selected parenteral antibiotic use to the sum of all selected antibiotic use in the two groups of hospitals during the supply disruption period and during the same months of the previous year. A controlled interrupted time series (CITS) analysis was conducted to estimate the impact of the CEZ shortage on each antibiotic use and the cost of all parenteral antibiotics per patient day in hospitals with shortage as compared to those without shortage., Results: In the hospitals with shortage, the proportion of CEZ use to the sum of all selected antibiotics decreased (23.5-11.1%). The decrease in CEZ use was mainly offset by the use of ceftriaxone, ceftriaxone, and ampicillin/sulbactam. The CITS analysis showed a statistically significant increase in the use of broader-spectrum beta-lactams and clindamycin during the supply disruption period (flomoxef up 58.1%, cefotiam up 63.1%, cefmetazole up 14.5%, ceftriaxone up 13.9%, and clindamycin up 20.1%). The analysis showed no statistically significant change in the cost of all parenteral antibiotics per patient day., Conclusions: During the CEZ supply disruption, there was a statistically significant increase in the use of broader-spectrum beta-lactams and clindamycin in hospitals with shortage compared with those without shortage., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Aims: Declines in cardiovascular diseases during the first surge of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been reported. With the repeating surges of COVID-19, we aim to investigate the medium-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the practice of percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs)., Methods: We performed a descriptive analysis of rates of PCIs, utilizing administrative data in Japan. Changes in the proportion of severe cases and in-hospital mortality since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic were investigated using interrupted time series (ITS) analyses., Results: From April 2018 to February 2021, 38,696 and 28,585 cases of elective and emergency PCIs, respectively, were identified. The rates of PCIs decreased during the first and third COVID-19 surges. The ratios of monthly rates of elective PCIs to that in the corresponding months during the previous 2 years were 50.3% in May 2020 and 76.1% in January 2021. The decrease in rates of emergency PCIs was smaller than that of elective PCIs. The ITS analyses did not identify any significant changes in the proportion of severe cases and in-hospital mortality., Conclusions: We found that the impacts of COVID-19 on PCIs were larger in the first surge than in the subsequent and larger in the elective than in the emergency; this continued over the medium-term. During the COVID-19 pandemic, in-hospital mortality of cases undertaking emergency PCIs did not change.

Aim: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has left negative spillover effects on the entire health care system. Previous studies have suggested significant declines in cases of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) during the COVID-19 pandemic., Methods: We performed a quasi-experimental, retrospective cohort study of ACS hospitalisations by using a multi-institutional administrative claims database in Japan. We used interrupted time series analyses to ascertain impacts on cases, treatment approaches, and in-hospital mortality before and after Japan's state of emergency to respond to COVID-19. The primary outcome was the change in ACS cases per week., Results: A total of 30,198 ACS cases (including 21,612 acute myocardial infarction and 8,586 unstable angina) were confirmed between 1 st July 2018 and 30 th June 2020. After the state of emergency, an immediate decrease was observed in ACS cases per week (-18.3%; 95% confidence interval, -13.1 to -23.5%). No significant differences were found in the severity of Killip classification (P=0.51) or cases of fibrinolytic therapy (P=0.74). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on in-hospital mortality in ACS patients was no longer observed after adjustment for clinical characteristics (adjusted odds ratio, 0.93; 95% confidence interval, 0.78 to 1.12; P=0.49)., Conclusions: We demonstrated the characteristics and trends of ACS cases in a Japanese population by applying interrupted time series analyses. Our findings provide significant insights into the association between COVID-19 and decreases in ACS hospitalisations during the pandemic.

Objectives: To comparatively examine the risk of postoperative paraplegia between open surgical descending aortic repair and thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) among patients with thoracic aortic disease., Design: Retrospective cohort study., Setting: Acute-care hospitals in Japan., Participants: A total of 6,202 patients diagnosed with thoracic aortic disease., Interventions: None., Measurements and Main Results: The main outcome of this study was the incidence of postoperative paraplegia. Multiple logistic regression models, using inverse probability of treatment weighting and an instrumental variable (ratio of TEVAR use to open surgical repair and TEVAR uses), showed that the odds ratios of paraplegia for TEVAR (relative to open surgical descending aortic repair) were 0.81 (95% confidence interval: 0.42-1.59; p = 0.55) in the inverse probability of treatment-weighted model and 0.88 (0.42-1.86; p = 0.75) in the instrumental-variable model., Conclusions: There were no statistical differences in the risk of paraplegia between open surgical repair and TEVAR in patients with thoracic aortic disease. Improved perioperative management for open surgical repair may have contributed to the similarly low incidence of paraplegia in these two surgery types., Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest The authors report no financial relationships or conflicts of interest regarding the content herein., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: There has been limited information on the economic evaluation of children, adolescents, and young adults (AYAs) with cancer. The aim of this study was to estimate the individual and nationwide costs for cancer care during the first year after diagnosis among children and AYAs in Japan., Materials and Methods: We estimated the direct health care costs for children (0-14 years old) and AYAs (15-29 years old) from the perspective of the public payer. Children and AYAs with newly diagnosed cancer between April 2016 and March 2018 were identified from the Diagnosis Procedure Combination Study Group database to calculate the cost per patient. The nationwide cost was estimated by the bottom-up approach, using stratification by age group, sex, and cancer classification, based on Population Estimates and Cancer Statistics data., Results: A total of 2,939 children and 5,512 AYAs were identified. The median 1-year cost per patient after diagnosis was 2,832,840 (interquartile range, 927,490-9,222,780) JPY (in USD: median, 28,047; interquartile range, 9,183-91,310). The median 1-year cost per patient was higher in children than in AYAs in all cancer classifications. Leukemia, treatment in cancer centers, and early death as well as longer hospital stay were identified to have an impact on 1-year cost per patient after diagnosis. The 1-year nationwide cost after diagnosis was estimated as 34.83 × 10 9 JPY (344.8 × 10 6 USD)., Conclusion: We showed that cancer treatments for both children and AYAs were highly cost-intensive in Japan. Our results suggest the need for further financial and policy evaluation.

Aims: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had unprecedented effects on health care utilization for acute cardiovascular diseases. Although hospitalizations for acute coronary syndrome decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a paucity of data on the trends and management of heart failure (HF) cases. Furthermore, concerns have been raised that angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) may increase susceptibility to COVID-19. This study aimed to elucidate changes in HF hospitalizations from the COVID-19 state of emergency in Japan and investigated changes in the prescription of ACEIs and ARBs, and in-hospital mortality., Methods and Results: We performed an interrupted time series analysis of HF hospitalizations in Japan to verify the impacts of the COVID-19 state of emergency. Changes in the weekly volume of HF hospitalizations were taken as the primary outcome measure. Between 1 April 2018 and 4 July 2020, 109 429 HF cases required admission. After the state of emergency, an immediate decrease was observed in HF cases per week [-3.6%; 95% confidence interval (CI): -0.3% to -6.7%, P = 0.03]. There was no significant change in the prescription of ACEIs or ARBs after the state of emergency (4.2%; 95% CI: -0.3% to 8.9%, P = 0.07). The COVID-19 pandemic had no effect on in-hospital mortality among HF patients (5.3%; 95% CI: -4.9% to 16.6%, P = 0.32)., Conclusions: We demonstrated a decline in HF hospitalizations during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan, with no clear evidence of a negative effect on the prescription of ACEIs and ARBs or in-hospital mortality., (© 2021 The Authors. ESC Heart Failure published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Society of Cardiology.)

Aims: To investigate the effects of regular periodontal management for people with type 2 diabetes on total healthcare expenditure, hospitalization and the introduction of insulin., Materials and Methods: We collected data of individuals who were prescribed diabetes medications during the fiscal year 2015 from the claims database of a prefecture in Japan. We fitted generalized linear models that had sex, age, comorbidities and the status of periodontal management during the previous two years as predictors., Results: A total of 16,583 individuals were enrolled. The annual healthcare expenditure in the third year was 4% less (adjusted multiplier 0.96, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.92-1.00) in the group receiving periodontal management every year. The adjusted odds ratio (aOR) for all-cause hospitalization was 0.90 (95% CI: 0.82-0.98). The aOR of introducing insulin in the third year for those who had not been prescribed insulin during the previous two years (n = 13,222) was 0.77 (95% CI: 0.64-0.92) in the group receiving periodontal management every year., Conclusion: Regular periodontal management for diabetic people was associated with reduced healthcare expenditure, all-cause hospitalization and the introduction of insulin therapy., (© 2021 The Authors. Journal of Clinical Periodontology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: The length of hospital stay in community-acquired pneumonia patients is closely associated with medical costs, the burden of which is increasing in aging societies. Herein, we developed and validated models for predicting prolonged length of stay in community-acquired pneumonia patients to support efficient care in these patients., Methods: We obtained data of 32,916 patients hospitalized for pneumonia who were discharged between 2012 and 2013 from 304 acute care hospitals in Japan. Logistic regression models were developed with prolonged length of stay as the outcome and patient characteristics as predictors. The models were internally validated using bootstrapping and externally validated using pneumonia patients discharged in 2014., Results: The median length of stay was 11 (interquartile range, 8-17) days. The following were significant predictors of prolonged length of stay (odds ratio >1.6): age ≥75 years, Barthel index score ≤6, fraction of inspired oxygen ≥35%, Japan Coma Scale score of 100-300, anemia, muscle wasting and atrophy, bedsores, dysphasia, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection. Our validation models had a c-statistic of 0.78 (95% confidence interval, 0.77-0.79) and a calibration slope of 0.98., Conclusions: Our prediction models may help policymakers in developing strategies for the optimal management of community-acquired pneumonia patients with a focus on patients at a high risk of prolonged length of stay., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest The authors have no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2020 The Japanese Respiratory Society. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: More data-driven evidence is needed on the cost of antibiotic resistance. Both Japan and England have large surveillance and administrative datasets. Code sharing of costing models enables reduced duplication of effort in research. Objective: To estimate the burden of antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections (BSIs) in Japan, utilizing code that was written to estimate the hospital burden of antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli BSIs in England. Additionally, the process in which the code-sharing and application was performed is detailed, to aid future such use of code-sharing in health economics. Methods: National administrative data sources were linked with voluntary surveillance data within the Japan case study. R software code, which created multistate models to estimate the excess length of stay associated with different exposures of interest, was adapted from previous use and run on this dataset. Unit costs were applied to estimate healthcare system burden in 2017 international dollars (I$). Results: Clear supporting documentation alongside open-access code, licensing, and formal communication channels, helped the re-application of costing code from the English setting within the Japanese setting. From the Japanese healthcare system perspective, it was estimated that there was an excess cost of I$6,392 per S. aureus BSI, whilst oxacillin resistance was associated with an additional I$8,155. Conclusions: S. aureus resistance profiles other than methicillin may substantially impact hospital costs. The sharing of costing models within the field of antibiotic resistance is a feasible way to increase burden evidence efficiently, allowing for decision makers (with appropriate data available) to gain rapid cost-of-illness estimates., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2020 Naylor, Yamashita, Iwami, Kunisawa, Mizuno, Castro-Sánchez, Imanaka, Ahmad and Holmes.)

Septic patients can develop disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), which is characterized by systemic blood coagulation and an increased risk of life-threatening haemorrhage. Although antithrombin (AT) and thrombomodulin (TM) combination anticoagulant therapy is frequently used to treat septic patients with DIC in Japan, its effectiveness in improving patient outcomes remains unclear. In this large-scale multicentre retrospective study of adult septic patients with DIC treated at Japanese hospitals between February 2010 and March 2016, we compared in-hospital mortality between AT monotherapy and AT + TM combination therapy. We performed logistic regression analysis with in-hospital mortality as the dependent variable and anticoagulant therapy as the main independent variable of interest. Covariates included patient demographics, disease severity, and body surface area. The AT group and AT + TM group comprised 1,017 patients from 352 hospitals and 1,205 patients from 349 hospitals, respectively. AT + TM combination therapy was not significantly associated with lower mortality when compared with AT monotherapy (odds ratio: 0.97, 95% confidence interval: 0.78-1.21; P = 0.81). AT + TM combination therapy was also not superior to AT monotherapy in reducing mechanical ventilation or hospitalization durations. Despite its widespread use for treating sepsis with DIC, AT + TM combination therapy is not more effective in improving prognoses than the simpler AT monotherapy.

Background: The prevention of invasive fungal infections is important in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML)/myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) receiving cytoreductive chemotherapy. However, the role of oral voriconazole (VRCZ) in such patients has not been established. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of oral VRCZ compared to that of first-generation azoles prescribed within 7 days after the onset of chemotherapy in adult patients with AML/MDS using the Japanese administrative database., Methods: This nationwide retrospective cohort study was conducted using the Diagnosis Procedure Combination/Per-Diem Payment System. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients who switched to intravenous antifungal agents. Analyses using the instrumental variable method were performed to address unmeasured confounding., Results: In total, data on 5517 inpatients from 142 hospitals were analyzed. An oral VRCZ prescription was significantly associated with a reduction in the proportion of patients switching to intravenous antifungal agents compared to first-generation azole prescription (21.0% (95% confidence interval [CI] - 33.4 to - 8.6)). The impact of oral VRCZ in reducing the proportion of patients switching to intravenous antifungal agents was stronger in patients aged < 65 years than in those aged ≥ 65 years (- 40.6%, 95% CI - 63.2 to - 17.9; - 21.9%, 95% CI - 35.8 to - 8.1, respectively) and in patients prescribed oral azole within 3 days from the onset of chemotherapy than in those prescribed the same later (- 32.9%, 95% CI - 46.7 to - 19.2; - 9.0%, 95% CI - 33.7 to 15.7, respectively)., Conclusion: Oral VRCZ administration may benefit adult patients with AML/MDS undergoing chemotherapy.

The accumulated healthcare performance data related to unwarranted practice variations are not necessarily disseminated to patients and citizens. To clarify the needs for public disclosure, we explored Japanese and Dutch citizens' preferences and values towards information disclosure and healthcare disparity.Online opt-in survey was conducted and we asked citizens their preference to know about the healthcare performance indicators of regions and hospitals, and their attitudes towards healthcare equity. After a descriptive statistical analysis, Chi-squared automatic interaction detection tree analysis was performed to explore the socio-demographic determinants which were associated with positive value for information disclosure and healthcare equity. Then, we compared the combination of attributes of the highest and the lowest subgroups of each country and compared within and between countries. Last, logistic regression analysis was performed to further evaluate the impact of each determinant.Significant differences were observed between the 2 countries (Japan [JPN] 1038; Netherlands [NL] 1040). The crucial attributes identified were age, sex, educational background, and living area (JPN), along with age and sex (NL). Japanese comprised multiple subgroups with heterogeneous values, showed relatively low interest in knowing the information, and seemed to accept healthcare inequality, especially among urban males aged 20 to 59 years. Contrarily, Dutch people mostly showed high interest in both items. Female and older respondents valued information disclosure highly across countries.To share healthcare performance knowledge and empowering the public, historical, cultural, and socio-demographic context including health literacy of citizens' subgroups should be considered in making comprehensive public reports.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to clarify the microlevel determinants of the economic burden of dementia care at home in Japanese community settings by classifying them into subgroups of factors related to people with dementia and their caregivers., Design: A cross-sectional online survey., Participants: 4313 panels of Japanese research company who fulfilled the following criteria: (1) aged 30 years or older, (2) non-professional caregiver of someone with dementia, (3) caring for only one person with dementia and (4) having no conflicts of interest with advertising or marketing research entities., Primary Outcome Measures: Informal care costs and out-of-pocket payments for long-term care (LTC) services., Results: From 4313 respondents, only 1383 caregivers in community-settings were included in this analysis. We conducted a χ² automatic interaction detection analysis to identify the factors related to each cost (informal care costs and out-of-pocket payments for LTC services) divided into subcategories. In the resultant classifications, informal care cost was mainly related to caregivers' employment status. When caregivers acquired family care leave, informal care costs were the highest. On the other hand, out-of-pocket payments for LTC were related to care-need levels and family economic status. Activities of Daily Living and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living functions such as bathing, toileting and cleaning were related to all costs., Conclusion: This study clarified the difference in dementia care costs between classified subgroups by considering the combination of the situations of both people with dementia and their caregivers. Informal care costs were related to caregivers' employment and cohabitation status rather to the situations of people with dementia. On the other hand, out-of-pocket payments for LTC services were related to care-need levels and family economic status. These classifications will be useful in understanding which situation represents a greater economic burden and helpful in improving the sustainability of the dementia care system in Japan., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Background: Some clinicians keep patients in stage 5 chronic kidney disease (CKD) without hemodialysis for a while. This study investigated whether previously-initiated hemodialysis in stage 5 CKD patients may become a prognostic factor for in-hospital mortality due to pneumonia., Methods: Patient data were obtained from the multi-institutional diagnosis procedure combination database between April 1, 2012 and March 31, 2016. The patients had records of pneumonia as both trigger and major diagnoses and records of end stage renal disease (ESRD) or stage 5 CKD as a comorbidity or other diagnoses on admission and aged 18 years or older. The following factors were adjusted: age, sex, body mass index, Barthel index, orientation disturbance, arterial oxygen saturation, systolic blood pressure, C-reactive protein level or the extent of consolidation on chest radiography, ambulance use, hospitalization within 90 days, and comorbidities upon admission. The primary outcome measure was all-cause in-hospital mortality obtained via multivariable logistic regression analysis using four Models. Model 1 involved complete case analysis with overlapping; one hospitalization per patient was counted as one. Model 2 involved a complete case analysis without overlapping; only the first hospitalization per patient was counted. Model 3 involved multilevel analysis clustered by hospital codes. Model 4 was created after multiple imputation for lacking adjusted factors., Results: A total of 907 hospitals and 7,726 patients were identified. Hemodialysis was significantly associated with lower in-hospital mortality in all models (odds ratio [OR] = 0.68, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.54-0.87 in Model 1; OR = 0.71, 95% CI: 0.55-0.91 in Model 2; OR = 0.67, 95% CI: 0.52-0.86 in Model 3; and OR = 0.68, 95% CI: 0.54-0.87 in Model 4)., Conclusion: Previously-initiated hemodialysis may be an independent prognostic factor for in-hospital mortality in pneumonia patients with end-stage renal disease. This should be borne in mind when considering the time of initiation of dialysis., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Background: In recent years, surgical outcomes have improved, and positive reports on surgery for type A aortic dissection (AAD) in the elderly are increasing. However, the difference between surgical and conservative treatments in the elderly remains unclear. Therefore, we conducted this study to determine whether surgery should be performed for Stanford (AAD) in elderly patients., Methods: Data of patients aged 80 years or older who were hospitalized for AAD from April 2014 to March 2016 were extracted from the Japanese national inpatient database. Outcome measures were all-cause in-hospital death, stroke, acute kidney injury and tracheotomy, and composite adverse events (consisting of all-cause in-hospital death, stroke, acute kidney injury, and tracheotomy), and we compared them between surgical and conservative treatments using propensity score matching., Results: The study cohort included 3258 patients, with 845 matched pairs (1690 patients) in the propensity score matching. All-cause in-hospital death was significantly lower in the surgical treatment group than in the conservative treatment group before and after matching (15.6% vs. 51.1%, p < 0.001; 16.7% vs. 31.6%, p < 0.001, respectively); however, there was no significant difference in composite adverse events after matching (36.0%, conservative vs. 37.2%, surgical; p = 0.65), and adjusted odds ratio was 1.06 and 95% confidence interval was 0.86-1.29 (p = 0.61) with reference to conservative treatment., Conclusions: All-cause in-hospital death among elderly patients with AAD was significantly lower in patients treated surgically than in those undergoing conservative treatment. However, there was no significant difference between the two groups in the event-free survival, which is important for the elderly. These findings may be used in the consideration of treatment course for elderly patients with AAD.

Background: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is the most common antimicrobial-resistant organism identified in Japanese health care facilities. This study analyzed the clinical and economic burdens attributable to methicillin resistance in S aureus in Japanese hospitals., Methods: We retrospectively investigated data from 14,905 inpatients of 57 hospitals combined with data from nosocomial infection surveillance and administrative claim databases. The participants were inpatients with admission from April 1, 2014, to discharge on March 31, 2016. The outcomes were evaluated according to length of stay, hospital charges, and in-hospital mortality. We compared the disease burden of MRSA infections with methicillin-susceptible S aureus (MSSA) infections based on patients' characteristics and onset periods., Results: We categorized 7,188 and 7,717 patients into MRSA and MSSA groups, respectively. The adjusted effects of the MRSA group were 1.03-fold (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.01-1.05) and 1.04-fold (95% CI, 1.01-1.06), respectively, with an odds ratio of 1.14 (95% CI, 1.02-1.27)., Conclusions: The results of this study found that patient severity and onset delays were positively associated with both MRSA and burden and that the effect of methicillin resistance remained significant after adjustment., (Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.)