Patients with cancer often carry the dual burden of the cancer itself and other co-existing medical conditions. The problems associated with comorbidities among elderly cancer patients are more prominent compared with younger patients. This study aimed to identify common cancer-related comorbidities in elderly patients through routinely collected hospital discharge data and to use association rules to analyze the prevalence and patterns of these comorbidities in elderly cancer patients at different cancer sites. We collected the discharge data of 80,574 patients who were diagnosed with cancers of the esophagus, stomach, colorectum, liver, lung, female breast, cervix, and thyroid between 2016 and 2018. The same number of non-cancer patients were randomly selected as the control group and matched with the case group by age and gender. The results showed that cardiovascular diseases, metabolic diseases, digestive diseases, and anemia were the most common comorbidities in elderly patients with cancer. The comorbidity patterns differed based on the cancer site. Elderly patients with liver cancer had the highest risk of comorbidities, followed by lung cancer, gastrointestinal cancer, thyroid cancer, and reproductive cancer. For example, elderly patients with liver cancer had the higher risk of the comorbid infectious and digestive diseases, whereas patients with lung cancer had the higher risk of the comorbid respiratory system diseases. The findings can assist clinicians in diagnosing comorbidities and contribute to the allocation of medical resources.

Background/purposeAsthma is a common, chronic disease that causes respiratory symptoms in children. Dental caries is also a common chronic disease in the pediatric population. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the correlation between asthma medications and dental caries among children in Taiwan.Materials and methodsThe Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database was used in this retrospective cohort study to analyze the correlation between asthma and dental caries in children. The prevalence and severity of caries were compared between children with and without asthma. The effects of different asthma medications on dental caries were also compared.ResultsA total of 4601 children with asthma and 4589 children without asthma were included in this study. The caries prevalence of children without asthma was 85.2%, and that of children with asthma was 90.0%. The prevalence of caries in children with asthma was significantly higher than that in children without asthma (P < 0.001). The caries status was categorized into mild, moderate and severe dental caries. The rate of mild dental caries was higher in the children without asthma (35.1%) than in the children with asthma (29.8%). The rate of severe caries was significantly higher in children with asthma (34.3%) than in those without asthma (30.7%). Also, children with asthma using bronchodilators had a higher rate of severe dental caries (39%) than in children without asthma (30.7%).ConclusionChildren receiving asthma medications had higher dental caries prevalence and higher rate of severe caries than children without asthma.

Shenzhen in China has undergone rapid economic development over the years. The purpose of this study was to investigate disease development trends among women and children inpatients in Shenzhen. A maternal and child health care hospital in Futian District was chosen for this retrospective study. The data were collected from 55 246 inpatients' information from 2003 to 2012 and were classified into gynecological and pediatric diseases. Descriptive analysis was conducted with Microsoft Excel 2007. The results showed that the number of inpatients had increased year by year, and the constituents of disease had been substantially changed in the study period. More interventions and large-scale studies are needed to improve maternal and child health care in Shenzhen.