Statistical presentation

Data description

The statistics cover stays at public and private somatic and psychiatric hospital wards within one calendar year. The statistics are based on the National Patient Register from the Danish Health Data Authority combined with a number of background details from other registers. The statistics show e.g. how the use of hospitals varies with a range of sociodemographic factors such as residence, sex, age, educational level, labour market affiliation and relatives. The statistics also show how hospital stays are distributed according to main diagnosis group.

Classification system

The following groups and classifications are applied in connection with publication of the Hospital Utilisation statistics:

• In the StatBank table SBR01: Age, sex, and municipality of residence are extracted from the Population Register at the end of the given year.

• In the StatBank tables SBR02–08: Age is determined at the end of the given year based on the date of birth derived at the time of pseudonymisation of the CPR from LPR data. All individuals aged over 115 years are deleted.

Sex is determined during pseudonymisation from the most recently registered CPR in the LPR data for the given year. In the LPR data for 2024, there were 283 individuals with more than one CPR, and thus more than one sex recorded. This was handled by selecting the most recently registered CPR and using it exclusively to determine sex.

• Hospital service type (somatics - psychiatry - both). The hospital stays can be categorized according to somatics, psychiatrics or both (i.e. hospital stays where there has been physical attendance in both somatic and psychiatric hospital services) according to the Danish Health Data Authority.

• Hospital type (public - private - both)

• Labour market affiliation is taken as of 31 December of the previous year from the Labour Classification Module. It is broken down into: Employed - Unemployed - Long-term sick leave, vocational rehabilitation, etc. - Disability pensioner - Oldage pensioner - Students, persons under 15 years and others

• Highest completed education is taken as of 30 September of the previous year from the Education Register. It is grouped according to the DDU format: Primary school - Upper secondary education - Vocational education and training - Short-cycle higher education - Medium-cycle higher education - Long-cycle higher education - PhD or equivalent - Unknown educational level

• Ancestry is taken from the Population Register at the end of the given year. Broken down into: persons of Danish origin - immigrants - descendants - unknowns.

• Relatives (has a partner and no other relatives - has a partner and other relatives - has no partner but has other relatives - has neither a partner nor other relatives)

• Diagnosis (the primary diagnosis linked to the last contact of the stay) is grouped based on the 21 main diagnosis groups in the Danish version of the ICD (International Classification of Diseases), see The SKS browser.

Sector coverage

Public and private somatic and psychiatric hospital wards.

Statistical concepts and definitions

Hospital stay: One or more contacts involving physical attendance by a person at one or more hospitals or healthcare institutions. A contact may, for example, be a consultation, examination, admission or similar. Multiple contacts are considered part of the same hospital stay if no more than four hours pass between the end of one contact and the beginning of the next.

Statistical unit

• Persons

• Stays

Statistical population

The population's stays at public and/or private somatic and psychiatric wards.

Reference area

Denmark

Time coverage

2017 - 2024

Base period

Not relevant for these statistics.

Unit of measure

Number of hospital stays or of people using hospital services.

Reference period

The reference time is the calendar year in which the hospital stay took place.

Frequency of dissemination

Annually.

Legal acts and other agreements

Section 6 of the act on Statistics Denmark, cf. consolidating act no. 610 of 30 May 2008. There is no EU regulation concerning the Hospital Utilization Statistics.

Cost and burden

The statistics are based on administrative registers. There is therefore no direct reporting burden in connection with the calculation of these statistics.

Comment

Further information is available at: Statistics Denmark or by contacting Statistics Denmark.