• Keng-Ming Chang, Ching-Hung Hsieh, Han-Sun Chiang, and Tian-Shyug Lee.
• Graduate Institute of Business Administration, Fu-Jen Catholic University, Taipei, Taiwan; Fu-Jen Catholic University Hospital, Taiwan.
• Taiwan J Obstet Gynecol. 2017 Feb 1; 56 (1): 32-36.

ObjectiveTo explore the factors influencing the trends in incidence and cost for female inpatient urinary incontinence (UI) surgery from 1997 to 2011.Materials And MethodsA dataset of one million individuals was randomly drawn from the nationwide National Health Insurance claim database covering Taiwan's population from 1997 to 2011. The participants consisted of women aged ≥20 years who underwent UI surgery. We evaluated the trends of inpatient UI incidence, the medical cost of UI surgery, and the number of UI surgeries performed from 1997 to 2011.ResultsA total of 1517 women underwent inpatient UI surgery from 1997 to 2011. Among these patients, the age-standardized incidence of UI surgery gradually trended upward from 1997 to 2010 but decreased in 2011. The trends were similar for medical costs, including annual inpatient cost, total medical service cost, and surgery fees. The annual inpatient cost had doubled in 2011 compared with that in 1997. However, physician visit fees, ward fees, and anesthesia fees started decreasing from 2005. The length of hospital stay and medication fees decreased during the 15-year study period. Surgeries by doctor specialty, hospital accreditation level, and patient age were stable for the study period.ConclusionThe trends of age-standardized incidence of UI surgery, annual inpatient cost, total inpatient cost, and surgery fees increased significantly from 1997 to 2009, and abruptly decreased from 2010 to 2011. Long-term observation evaluating the impact of Diagnosis-Related Group payment system in Taiwan is warranted to verify in the future.Copyright © 2017 Taiwan Association of Obstetrics & Gynecology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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