• Kristen Hassmiller Lich, Debbie Travers, Wayne Psek, Morris Weinberger, Karin Yeatts, Winston Liao, Steven J Lippmann, Levi Njord, and Anna Waller.
• Department of Health Policy and Management, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7411, USA. klich@unc.edu
• N C Med J. 2013 Jan 1;74(1):9-17.

BackgroundAsthma is a prevalent, morbid, and costly chronic condition that may result in preventable exacerbations requiring emergency department (ED) care. In North Carolina we have limited information about the frequency and characteristics of asthma-related ED visits.MethodsWe estimated statewide population-based asthma-related ED visit rates in North Carolina, both overall and by age, sex, geography, insurance, and season.ResultsThere were 86,700 asthma-related ED visits in North Carolina in 2008, representing 2.1% of all ED visits in the state. Substantial geographic variation existed, with rates ranging from 1.3 visits per 1,000 population in Ashe County to 21.0 visits per 1,000 population in Pasquotank County. Rates by age, sex, and month were consistent with the findings of other studies. Of asthma ED visits, 4.8% were preceded by another asthma visit to the same ED within 14 days. The proportion of patients who made at least 1 additional asthma visit to the same ED within 365 days was 23.5%; 11.6% of asthma ED patients met at least 1 criterion for being at high risk of hospitalization or death.LimitationsWe lacked data on ED visits for asthma outside North Carolina, information about the accuracy of asthma diagnosis in the ED, patient identifiers that would allow linking across EDs, data on race or ethnicity, and data on urgent care utilization.ConclusionsWe have characterized the burden of asthma in EDs across North Carolina, by county and among key subpopulations. These data can be used to target and evaluate local and statewide asthma-control policy efforts.

29 keywords...

hide…