Seizure-related hospital admissions, re-admissions and costs: Comparisons with asthma and diabetes in South Australia

Background and Objectives: Seizures are listed as
an Ambulatory Care Sensitive Condition (ACSC),
where, in some cases, hospitalisation may be
avoided with appropriate preventative and early
management in primary care. We examined the
frequencies, trends and financial costs of first and
subsequent seizure-related hospital admissions in
the adult and paediatric populations, with
comparisons to bronchitis/asthma and diabetes
admissions in South Australia between 2012 and
2014.
Methods: De-identified hospital separation data
from five major public hospitals in metropolitan
South Australia were analysed to determine the
number of children and adults admitted for the
following Australian Refined Diagnosis Related
Groups: seizure related conditions;
bronchitis/asthma; and diabetes. Additional data
included length of hospital stay and type of
admission. Demographic data were analysed to
identify whether social determinants influence
admission, and a macro costing approach was then
applied to calculate the financial costs to the
Health Care System.
Results: Although epilepsy is less prevalent in the
Australian population than other chronic
conditions, this study reports higher rates of
seizure-related hospital separations than diabetes
(649/100,000 and 50/100,000 respectively). In
particular, a higher proportion of the total number
of separations were subsequent hospitalisations
among both children and adults with seizures than
either asthma or diabetes.
Conclusions: Following the lead of well-developed
and resourced health promotion initiatives in
asthma and diabetes, appropriate primary care,
community education and seizure management
services (including seizure clinics) should be
targeted in an effort to reduce seizure related
hospitalisations which may be avoidable, minimise
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costs to the health budget, and maximise health
care quality.