The potential implications of a PCOS diagnosis on a woman's long-term health using data linkage.

CONTEXT

The polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the commonest endocrine abnormality in women of reproductive age.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the rate of hospital admissions for women with PCOS in Western Australian population in comparison to women without PCOS.

DESIGN

A population-based retrospective cohort study using data linkage in a statewide hospital morbidity database system.

SETTING

All hospitals within Western Australia.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 2566 women with PCOS hospitalized from 1997-2011 and 25 660 randomly selected age-matched women without a PCOS diagnosis derived from the electoral roll.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Hospitalizations by ICD-10-M diagnoses from 15 years were compared.

RESULTS

Hospitalizations were followed until a median age of 35.8 years (interquartile range, 31.0-39.9). PCOS was associated with more nonobstetric and non-injury-related hospital admissions (median, 5 vs 2; P < .001), a diagnosis of adult-onset diabetes (12.5 vs 3.8%), obesity (16.0 vs 3.7%), hypertensive disorder (3.8 vs 0.7%), ischemic heart disease (0.8 vs 0.2%), cerebrovascular disease (0.6 vs 0.2%), arterial and venous disease (0.5 vs 0.2% and 10.4 vs 5.6%, respectively), asthma (10.6 vs 4.5%), stress/anxiety (14.0 vs 5.9%), depression (9.8 vs 4.3%), licit/illicit drug-related admissions (8.8 vs 4.5%), self-harm (7.2 vs 2.9%), land transport accidents (5.2 vs 3.8%), and mortality (0.7 vs 0.4%) (all P < .001). Women with PCOS had a higher rate of admissions for menorrhagia (14.1 vs 3.6%), treatment of infertility (40.9 vs 4.6%), and miscarriage (11.1 vs 6.1%) and were more likely to require in vitro fertilization (17.2 vs 2.0%).

CONCLUSION

PCOS has profound medical implications for the health of women, and health care resources should be directed accordingly.