Study of Demographics and Etiological Trends in Hiccup Hospitalizations in the United States During 2005-2018, A Cross-Sectional Study.

Abstract INTRODUCTION Currently, there is a lack of information regarding the frequency of hospital admissions for hiccups and exploring the underlying causes. This study reports hospital admissions for hiccups in the United States (U.S.). METHODS A cross-sectional study was performed, utilizing information from the U.S. National Inpatient Sample (NIS) from 2005 to 2018. Demographic information was extracted. The odds of hiccups occurring within different diagnostic categories were calculated regarding the overall frequency of each diagnosis. RESULTS NIS recorded 66,124 patients diagnosed with hiccups during hospital admission, with a mean of 4,723 (SD ±937) hospitalizations per year and an incidence of 632 cases per million hospital discharges. Patients had a mean (SD) age of 60.1 (±16.2) years and were mostly male (93%) and white (61%). Within this cohort, 895 cases (1.4%) were admitted with a principal diagnosis of hiccups. A secondary diagnosis of hiccups was most often recorded in patients with digestive diseases (n=13,728, 21.2% of all admissions with hiccups). This was higher than the number expected by chance, based on the overall number of admissions (OR 3.1 [2.9-3.3]. CONCLUSIONS This epidemiological study confirms the often repeated “expert opinion” that hiccups are common in patients admitted with digestive diseases. Understanding the principal diagnoses and demographics of hiccup admissions allows clinicians to develop pertinent differential diagnoses for a patient presenting with unremitting hiccups.