1(1) These tables are based upon collection of data from household respondents over a
2-year period, July 1958 through June 1960. The frequencies show the estimated annual
average number of hospital discharges from short-stay hospitals for the civilian noninstitu-
tional population of the United States living at the time of interview. The actual sample
included about 235,000 persons.

(2) The condition groups shown have been consolidated from a more detailed list of
co conditions. It must be remembered that these are frequencies for the living population
not in institutions. Therefore the frequencies for malignant neoplasms, a highly fatal
disease, do not reflect the full extent of hospitalization during the year for this condition.
This is true to lesser degree for other conditions as well.

Similarly, for certain conditions for which people are in institutions, such as mental conditions and tuberculosis, the figures do not include such cases as may have been in short-stay hospitals during the year.

The institutional cases are excluded by definition and therefore any short-stay hospital experience of these people is missed. To a much lesser degree cases other than mental and tuberculosis are subject to this same qualification in the data.

The above qualifications are most important in the table for persons aged 65 and older
since mortality and institutional care are high in this group.

(3) Frequencies of less than 75,000 cases have sampling errors in excess of 20 percent.
Therefore there are hazards in using figures of low frequencies. Less risk is attached to
using percentage distributions which are part of a consistent trend or pattern within a
table as a whole.

Mental and TB have been grouped together because these 2 conditions usually fall
into the long-stay hospital category and are not representative for this table.

Source: National Health Survey, preliminary tables prepared for Senate Special Com mittee on Aging.

TABLE II.—Percent distribution of the proportion of hospital bill paid by hospital insurance for all hospitalized persons discharged from short-stay hospitals, by type of conditions, for persons under 65

TABLE III.-Percent distribution of discharges from short-stay hospitals according to the length of stay interval and average length of stay, by

type of condition, for age 65 and over

[Based on the 1-year average for the 2-year collection period from July 1958 to June 1960]

TABLE IV.-Percent distribution of discharges from short-stay hospitals according to the length-of-stay interval and average length of stay, by type of condition, for under age 65