Epidemiology and outcomes of children with accidental hypothermia: A propensity-matched study.

Background: The purpose of this study was to explore the epidemiology and outcomes of hospitalized children with a diagnosis of accidental hypothermia. Methods: The 2012 Kids' Inpatient Database, detailing discharge diagnoses in children admitted to US hospitals, was analyzed using ICD-9-DM codes to filter out relevant patients. Children ages 1 month to 17 years were included in the analysis. Demographic and outcome variables in the hypothermia group were compared with the rest of the patients. In a separate analysis, children with hypothermia were matched 1:1 using a correlative propensity score utilizing gender, age, hospital region, income quartiles, race, ventilation status, coagulopathy, drowning, and APRDRG severity score and their outcomes were compared with controls. The sample data were weighted to get a national estimate. Results: Accidental hypothermia was present in 1,028 cases out of 1,915,435 discharges. Children with hypothermia were more likely to be males (54.7% vs 50.9%; p

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