Trends of hospitalisation for patients with liver cirrhosis in Ningxia, China: a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the changing trends of hospitalisation for patients with liver cirrhosis between 2015 and 2019 by using hospitalisation summary records in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (NHAR), China. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study. SETTING: Hospitalisation summary records between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2019 from 28 top-ranking hospitals in NHAR were extracted and rigorously analysed. PARTICIPANTS: During the study period, hospitalisation records referring to liver cirrhosis were included. Records with missing data were excluded. A total of 16 566 patients with liver cirrhosis were included in this study. OUTCOME MEASURES: International Classification of Diseases codes, tenth version (ICD-10) and text-diagnoses were used to identify hospitalisation records referring to liver cirrhosis. RESULTS: Between 2015 and 2019, hospitalisation rates for liver cirrhosis declined from 8.38% to 5.57%. Chronic viral hepatitis accounted for almost 70% of all liver cirrhosis admissions; the remaining 30% of patients were admitted due to non-viral hepatitis cirrhosis (28.06%) and alcoholic cirrhosis (2.05%). The male-to-female hospitalisation rate ratio for liver cirrhosis was 2.57. The hospitalisation rate for workers with hepatitis cirrhosis was significantly higher than farmers (hospitalisation rate ratio (RR)=1.06, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.15, p<0.001); this was also the case for alcoholic cirrhosis (RR=5.23, 95% CI 3.34 to 8.20). However, the hospitalisation rate for workers with non-viral hepatitis cirrhosis was significantly lower than for farmers (RR=5.23, 95% CI 3.34 to 8.20, p<0.001). The hospitalisation rate increased in patients over the age of 30 years and reached a peak at the age of 45–50 years. CONCLUSIONS: The hospitalisation rate for liver cirrhosis has declined over recent years and chronic viral hepatitis remains the major cause of liver cirrhosis in NHAR. Hospitalisation summary records can efficiently reflect the local changing trends of hospitalisation for liver cirrhosis and represent an efficient strategy for the surveillance of chronic disease.