Differences between Italian and immigrant female citizens’ hospitalizations related to obstetrical and gynecological diseases in the province of Ferrara, Italy

Abstract

Introduction In the recent years, the province of Ferrara, in the Italian Northeast has been characterized by the phenomenon of massive immigration. The aim was to study hospital admissions related to the immigrant female population and its implications. Materials and Methods The Local Healthcare Unit of the National Health Service provided data related to hospital admissions between 01/01/2006 to 31/12/2006. Results and Conclusions On 53699 admissions of female subjects, 2656 were related to immigrants. A total of 1509 admissions were obstetrical or gynecological hospitalizations. The high number of DRGs representative of spontaneous abortions and voluntary interruptions of pregnancy may be an expression of social problem of some sections of the immigrant people community. The dissemination of information on the existence of social assistance programs is important. This can prevent the occurrence of critical health situations, especially during pregnancy and childbirth. BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE WORK The territory of the province of Ferrara, in north-eastern Italy has been in recent years characterized by the phenomenon of mass migration of people from countries especially outside the European Union [1]. This led to differing health needs compared to the Italian population one. This could be a result from the differences in demographic characteristics of the two populations, such as the lower mean age of the immigrant population. The present work is aimed to identify areas of possible interventions allowing optimization of resources in the light of possible changes over time. MATERIALS AND METHODS The Local Healthcare Unit (LHU) of Ferrara provided data related to the hospital admissions from 01/01/2006 to 31/12/2006 granted to immigrant and Italian citizens. The database included nationality, date of birth, residence. The gender was inferred from the tax code. From a health-related point of view, the database showed data related to the type of access, the type of admission (ordinary or day hospital (DH)), the days of hospitalization, the hospital facility, the DRG (Version 19). The facilities included those directly controlled by LHU, the University Hospital, private structures, and extra-provincial structures. GynecologicalDRG included those from 353 to 369 included and obstetrical-DRG included those from 370 to 384. Access 2003 [2] and Excel 2003 [3] were used to manage and analyse data.