Improve Topic Counts for Forum?

[eluser]nullsys[/eluser]
I'm sorry but I don't understand your reply at all. I don't see how it fits.
Perhaps we have some wires crossed

The above code is being called as a way to list the amount of topics in a category for my forum.

I'm simply looking for a way to refine the code, or perhaps the layout of my database so that it's less intensive, or requires less queries.

For example, should I be updating a "topic_count" field in the "categories" table when new topics are created/deleted.
Or, should I stick with what I have?

Either way, it sounds like the same amount of queries.