Department of Pediatrics, Tsugaruhoken Medical COOP Kensei Hospital, Hirosaki, Japan.
J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med. 2022 Dec;35(25):4946-4951. doi: 10.1080/14767058.2021.1873270. Epub 2021 Jan 17.
Few studies have investigated the regional variations in the development of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia. This study aimed to investigate regional variations in medical costs for neonatal hyperbilirubinemia and the correlations between sunshine duration and medical care costs for neonatal hyperbilirubinemia in an ecological study, using the National Database of Japan.
We obtained data on the annual medical costs for neonatal hyperbilirubinemia, annual live births, and annual sunshine duration in each prefecture from the National Database of Health Insurance Claims and Specific Health Checkups of Japan (NDB) Open Data, Vital Statistics in Japan, and System of Social and Demographic Statistics Prefectural Data Basic Data from 2014 to 2017. We created choropleth maps showing the regional variations (quartiles) in the annual medical costs for neonatal hyperbilirubinemia per 10 live births and the annual sunshine duration in each prefecture. We used Pearson's correlation coefficients to evaluate the associations between the annual sunshine duration and annual medical care costs for neonatal hyperbilirubinemia per 10 live births in each prefecture.
The Tohoku region (on the Sea of Japan side) and the Hokuriku region were likely to have higher medical care costs for neonatal hyperbilirubinemia and shorter sunshine duration than the rest of the country. There were weak and negative correlations between the annual sunshine duration and the annual medical care costs for neonatal hyperbilirubinemia. The correlation coefficients ranged from -0.086 to -0.33.
There could be regional variations in the medical care costs for neonatal hyperbilirubinemia in Japan. Short sunshine duration could be a prognostic factor for the development of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia.
鲜有研究调查新生儿高胆红素血症的地域差异。本研究旨在通过日本国民健康保险索赔和特定健康检查 NDB 开放数据、日本人口动态统计和社会人口统计地区数据基础数据中的全国数据库，以生态研究的方式调查新生儿高胆红素血症的医疗费用地域差异，以及日照时间与新生儿高胆红素血症医疗费用之间的相关性。
我们从 2014 年至 2017 年的日本国民健康保险索赔和特定健康检查 NDB 开放数据、日本人口动态统计和社会人口统计地区数据基础数据中的全国数据库中获取了每个县的新生儿高胆红素血症的年医疗费用、年活产数和年日照时间数据。我们创建了地域（四分位）图，展示了每个县的新生儿高胆红素血症的每 10 个活产儿的年医疗费用和年日照时间的地域差异。我们使用皮尔逊相关系数评估了每个县的年日照时间与每 10 个活产儿的新生儿高胆红素血症的年医疗费用之间的关联。
日本东北地区（日本海一侧）和北陆地区的新生儿高胆红素血症的医疗费用可能高于其他地区，日照时间可能更短。每个县的年日照时间与新生儿高胆红素血症的年医疗费用之间存在微弱的负相关。相关系数范围从-0.086 到-0.33。
日本可能存在新生儿高胆红素血症的医疗费用地域差异。日照时间短可能是新生儿高胆红素血症发生的预后因素。
