Influencing factors for hospitalization expenses in patients with hypertension

Objective By analyzing the influencing factors of hospitalization expenses in hypertensive patients, we set to discover the association rules between different factors and high hospital costs to provide guidance for reducing the burden of treatment. Methods Information of hypertensive patients from 8 hospitals in Taiyuan city of Shanxi province in year 2017 was collected. After using multiple linear stepwise regression to screen out the external influential factors of the hospitalization expenses, the Apriori algorithm was used to explore potential strong association rules between different factors and high hospitalization expenses. Results The results of multiple linear regression showed that the length of stay had the largest impact on the hospitalization cost（β=0.490, P＜0.001）, 10 of the 12 strong association rules mined by the association rule model were related to the length of stay, and patients meeting the antecedents were more than twice as likely to incur high hospital costs. Conclusion Our results suggested that the high cost of hospitalization for hypertensive patients is mainly due to the length of hospitalization.