Background. Newark, New Jersey (NJ), with a population of 273,000, has 28% of its predominantly minority residents living in poverty.  More health-outcome data are needed to help focus resources for Newark's children.

Objective. To measure the relative health of children and identify areas for intervention by comparing hospitalizations of children in Newark vs. NJ overall.

Methods. Hospital discharges for the year 2003, for persons 28 days to 21 years, reported to the NJ Department of Health and Senior Services, were grouped into 11 categories based on primary discharge diagnosis.   Data included primary diagnosis, age, race, sex, and municipality of residence.  Population data were taken from the US Census 2003 American Community Survey.

            Analysis used SPSS 13.0.  Two-tailed one-sample t-tests were used for comparison with NJ values. Results. Crude annual risk of hospitalization for Newark and NJ youth were 90.9 and 52.4 per 1000 respectively.

The leading causes of hospitalization in NJ and Newark youth were the same but with different annual risks:

  Leading Causes of Hospitalization in Newark, NJ, 2003: Age-Adjusted Risk per 1000 Youth

Reason for Hospitalization *	Newark	NJ
Pregnancy/Childbirth (girls 10-21)	78.8	27.9
Infectious/Parasitic Diseases	16.5	10.7
Injury/Poisoning	7.8	5.5
Asthma	7.1	2.1
Mental Health/Substance Abuse	5.7	3.1

 *All differences significant, p<0.0005 Conclusions. Most hospitalizations for NJ youth are preventable, with Newark's rates being higher.   Public health intervention is needed; more “asthma action plans” and reinforcement of current efforts to reduce teen pregnancy, for example.   Hospitalization data are a useful tool for assessing community health.