Affiliations: Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health,
Faculty of Health Sciences, Rey Juan Carlos University, Madrid, Spain
Note: [] Correspondence: Dr. Juana María Santos-Sancho,
Departamento de Medicina Preventiva, Salud Pública, Inmunología y
Microbiología Médicas, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud,
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Avda. de Atenas s/n, 28922 Alcorcon, Madrid,
Spain. Tel.: +34 91 488 86 73; Fax: +34 91 488 89 55; E-mail:
juana.santos@urjc.es
Abstract: Mumps is a benign infectious condition, but when it affects adults
it may cause serious complications that require hospitalization with a high
cost and that may lead to permanent sequelae. The aim of this study was to
estimate the incidence of hospitalization for mumps in Spain from 1997 to 2006.
A retrospective epidemiological study was made using the data of the Spanish
National hospital Discharge database Minimum Basic Data Set (MBDS) for yrs
1997–2006. We selected all those patients with code 072 for any diagnosis
position (Clinical Modification of the International Classification of
Diseases: ICD-9-CM), and estimated the incidence of hospitalization, length of
stay, in hospital mortality and associated costs. Hospitalization for mumps was
registered in 1733 cases, equating to an overall annual hospitalization rate of
0.423 per 100000 inhabitants. The mean length of the hospital stay was 5 days
(interquartile range 3–9). There were 58 deaths in the study period. The
mean cost per patient hospitalized for mumps was 2,572 EUR. High levels of
immunization coverage are required to reduce the incidence of mumps, and
prevent hospitalization from, and outbreaks with, this disease.
