Table 1.
Characteristics of appendicitis patients aged 15 or above and their admitting hospitals in Taiwan, 1997–2001
| Non-Ruptured (n = 73,015) | Ruptured (n = 24,574) | Total (n = 97,589) | |||
| Characteristics | n | (%) | n | (%) | n |
| Mental disorder status | |||||
| No major mental disorder | 72,758 | (74.9) | 24,396 | (25.1) | 97,154 |
| Schizophrenia | 138 | (53.3) | 121 | (46.7) | 259 |
| Affective psychosis | 89 | (72.4) | 34 | (27.6) | 123 |
| Other major mental disorders | 30 | (56.6) | 23 | (43.4) | 53 |
| Gender | |||||
| Female | 36,416 | (78.4) | 10,024 | (21.6) | 46,440 |
| Male | 36,599 | (71.6) | 14,550 | (28.5) | 51,149 |
| Age (years) | |||||
| 15–24 | 23,178 | (81.4) | 5,281 | (18.6) | 28,459 |
| 25–34 | 18,341 | (81.2) | 4,261 | (18.9) | 22,602 |
| 35–44 | 14,518 | (75.9) | 4,619 | (24.1) | 19,137 |
| 45–54 | 7,929 | (69.7) | 3,440 | (30.3) | 11,369 |
| 55–64 | 4,247 | (62.1) | 2,597 | (38.0) | 6,844 |
| 65–74 | 3,277 | (55.1) | 2,669 | (44.9) | 5,946 |
| ≥ 75 | 1,525 | (47.2) | 1,707 | (52.8) | 3,232 |
| Ethnicity | |||||
| Non-aboriginal | 70,535 | (74.8) | 23,770 | (25.2) | 94,305 |
| Aboriginal | 2,480 | (75.5) | 804 | (24.5) | 3,284 |
| Socioeconomic status | |||||
| ≥ NT$40,000 | 11,211 | (75.3) | 3,685 | (24.7) | 14,896 |
| NT$20,000 ~ NT$39,999 | 17,244 | (77.2) | 5,103 | (22.8) | 22,347 |
| <NT$20,000 | 21,846 | (77.0) | 6,523 | (23.0) | 28,369 |
| Without a well-defined monthly wage | 22,714 | (71.0) | 9,263 | (29.0) | 31,977 |
| Hospital ownership | |||||
| Public | 15,529 | (76.7) | 4,719 | (23.3) | 20,248 |
| Nonprofit | 33,578 | (74.4) | 11,544 | (25.6) | 45,122 |
| Profit | 23,908 | (74.2) | 8,311 | (25.8) | 32,219 |
| Hospital accreditation level | |||||
| District Hospital-nonteaching | 14,093 | (73.5) | 5,072 | (26.5) | 19,165 |
| District Hospital-teaching | 13,331 | (80.5) | 3,225 | (19.5) | 16,556 |
| Regional Hospital | 28,810 | (75.1) | 9,565 | (24.9) | 38,375 |
| Medical Center | 16,781 | (71.4) | 6,712 | (28.6) | 23,493 |
| Hospital volume | |||||
| ≥ 360 | 18,370 | (72.8) | 6,851 | (27.2) | 25,221 |
| 210–360 | 19,120 | (74.5) | 6,559 | (25.5) | 25,679 |
| 80–210 | 17,907 | (77.1) | 5,324 | (22.9) | 23,231 |
| 0–80 | 17,618 | (75.1) | 5,840 | (24.9) | 23,458 |
| Hospital's geographic location | |||||
| Taipei Branch | 23,536 | (77.0) | 7,040 | (23.0) | 30,576 |
| Northern Branch | 12,999 | (77.7) | 3,739 | (22.3) | 16,738 |
| Central Branch | 11,790 | (70.6) | 4,907 | (29.4) | 16,697 |
| Southern Branch | 9,789 | (72.7) | 3,676 | (27.3) | 13,465 |
| Kao-Ping Branch | 12,693 | (73.6) | 4,553 | (26.4) | 17,246 |
| Eastern Branch | 2,208 | (77.0) | 659 | (23.0) | 2,867 |
| Year | |||||
| 1997 | 13,649 | (72.7) | 5,129 | (27.3) | 18,778 |
| 1998 | 13,892 | (73.8) | 4,939 | (26.2) | 18,831 |
| 1999 | 14,435 | (74.2) | 5,017 | (25.8) | 19,452 |
| 2000 | 15,146 | (76.1) | 4,757 | (23.9) | 19,903 |
| 2001 | 15,893 | (77.1) | 4,732 | (22.9) | 20,625 |