Ingresos hospitalarios en el área de la Bahía de Algeciras: comparación con Andalucía y Espa？a (2001-2005)

objectives: to describe hospital admissions data in the bay of algeciras from 2001 to 2005 compared with the rest of andalusia and spain and to analyze the relationship between these data and the most frequent diagnoses leading to excessive premature mortality in this area. methods: we carried out a cross-sectional study. the study population consisted of the residents of the municipalities of the bay of algeciras, obtained from the population and household census of 2001. age-adjusted annual average hospital admission rates were compared between the bay of algeciras (2001-2005) and the rest of andalusia and spain using the relative and attributable risk. hospital admissions and premature mortality rates were compared by means of the relative risk of the most important causes. results: hospital admissions in the bay of algeciras were significantly lower for most of the diagnoses studied. there was also excessive premature mortality, especially for circulatory diseases (rr for hospital admissions: 0.79 in men and 0.87 in women; rr for premature mortality: 1.39 in men and 1.70 in women). notable specific diseases were diabetes in both genders and cerebrovascular disease and liver cirrhosis in men. conclusions: this study found a lower use of healthcare services and a higher risk of premature mortality due to severe diseases in this region. further studies analyzing the potential socioeconomic and environmental determinants of the area are required.