Background: Seasonal associations of cardiovascular mortality have been noted in most populations of European origin years ago, but are not well evaluated in Asian populations recently. Methods: Utilizing the electronic Hospitalization Summary Reports (HSRs) from 32 top-ranked hospitals in Beijing, China, we evaluated the association between winter season and the risk of cardiovascular death among hospitalized individuals. General additive models and logistic regression models were adjusted for confounding factors. Results: Older patients who were admitted to the hospital in the winter months (January, February, November and December) had a death risk that was increased by approximately 30% to 50% (P < 0.01) over those who were admitted in May. However, younger patients did not seem to experience the same seasonal variations in death risk. The excess winter deaths among older patients were associated with ischemic heart disease (RR = 1.22; 95% CI 1.13 to 1.31), pulmonary heart disease (RR = 1.42; 95% CI 1.10 to 1.83), cardiac arrhythmias (RR = 1.67; 95% CI 1.36 to 2.05), heart failure (RR = 1.30; 95% CI 1.09 to 1.54), ischemic stroke (RR = 1.30; 95% CI 1.17 to 1.43), and other cerebrovascular diseases (RR = 1.78; 95% CI 1.40 to 2.25). The risks of mortality were higher in winter months than in the month of May, regardless of the presence or absence of respiratory disease. Conclusions: Winter season was associated with a substantially increased risk of cardiovascular death among older Chinese cardiovascular inpatients.

BACKGROUND:The burden of diabetes has become a worldwide public health issue. Previous studies focused on the composition and influencing factors of hospitalization costs for insured patients. The aim of this study was to compare the economic burden ...

Background: This study was conducted to describe present and changing trends in surgical modalities and neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) in female breast cancer patients in China from 2006 to 2015.Methods: Data of 44 299 female breast cancer patients from 15 tertiary hospitals in Beijing were extracted from hospitalization summary reports. Surgeries were categorized into five modalities: breast‐conserving surgery (BCS), simple mastectomy (SM), modified radical mastectomy (MRM), radical mastectomy (RM), and extensive radical mastectomy (ERM).Results: In total, 38 471 (86.84%) breast cancer patients underwent surgery: 22.64% BCS, 8.22% SM, 63.97% MRM, 4.24% RM, and 0.93% ERM. Older patients (> 60) underwent surgery more frequently than younger patients (< 60). The proportion of patients who underwent BCS was highest in the age ≥ 80 (39.24%) and < 40 (28.69%) subgroups and in patients with papillary carcinoma (35.48%), and lowest in the age 60‐ subgroup (18.17%) and in patients with Paget's disease (19.05%). SM was most frequently performed in patients with Paget's disease (29.00%), and MRM for ductal (64.99%), and lobular (63.78%) carcinomas. During the study period, the proportion of patients who underwent MRM dropped by 29.04%, SM and BCS increased from 15.78% and 30.83%, respectively, and NACT increased in all subgroups, particularly in patients with lymph node involvement (26.72%).Conclusions: Surgical modalities varied significantly by age and histologic group. The use of BCS and SM increased dramatically, while MRM declined significantly. The proportion of patients treated with NACT has increased significantly, especially in patients with lymph node involvement.

Purposes: We aimed to clarify the real-world status of breast cancer surgery and the cost in China. Methods: This cross-sectional survey relied on data obtained from the hospitalization summary reports (HSRs) in 77 top-ranked (grade 3A) hospitals in China to analyze breast cancer patients who underwent surgery between January 2015 and December 2015. The surgery and cost were mainly evaluated. Results: Overall, 31,900 breast cancer patients underwent surgeries in 77 hospitals. The mean age in our study was 51.5 years (SD, 11.7 years). The primary types of surgical procedures were mastectomy (n = 24,629, 77.2%) and breast-conserving surgery (6,210, 19.5%). The rate of mastectomy was the highest at age band 50–65 years (n = 10,861, 82.1%) and in non-first-tier cities (n = 7,651, 88.4%) as well as in Northeast China (n = 3,107, 93.2%). The rate of breast-conserving surgery was less than 10% in non-first-tier cities (9.8%), Southwest China (6.1%), and Northeast China (5.8%). The median cost was $3,352.4 (interquartile range (IQR), $2,492.6–4,588.0). Mastectomy cost was significantly higher than breast-conserving surgery cost in both different city tiers and regional distribution except Northeast China (p < 0.001). Conclusions: This study demonstrated that the main breast cancer surgery in Chinese 3A hospitals was mastectomy and that the cost varied both across and within geographic regions and city tiers. This information helps describe the real-world status of breast surgery and the cost in China.