Lynne Chandler, BS¹, Tao Zhang, MS¹, Craig W. Johnson, PhD¹, Michael A. DeGuzman, MPH², Rachel L. Richesson, MS, MPH¹, and Charles G. Macias, MD³. (1) University of Texas School of Health Information Sciences, 7000 Fannin, Suite 600, Houston, TX 77030, (2) Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Pediatric Emergency Medicine, 1645 Tullie Circle, Atlanta, GA 30329, 404-578-7021, madeguzman@yahoo.com, (3) Department of Pediatirc Emergency Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital, 6621 Fannin, MC1-1481, Houston, TX 77030

Asthma is the most common chronic disease in children. Often, Emergency Departments (EDs) are used as a source of care for episodic and acute asthma exacerbations. A sample of approximately 4100 children who met definitive criteria for asthma and presented to one of 4 greater Houston study EDs between 2001-2003 was analyzed to identify risk factors for return asthma ED visits. The data comes from the TEDAS (Texas Emergency Department Asthma Surveillance) project (funded by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation), which provides aggressive prospective and retrospective surveillance, and targeted inter-vention. Logistic regression identified significant predictors of ‘return visit to ED in past year’ (Yes, No). Independent variables were entered into the equation in four blocks in the following order: 1) Hospitalized (Yes, No), 2) Insurance Status (Uninsured, Chip, In-demnity, Managed Care, and Medicaid), 3) Language (English, Spanish), and 4) Ethnic-ity (Caucasian, African American, Asian, Hispanic, and Other). This ordering derived, respectively, from variables’ relationships with severity of asthma, ability to pay, and un-derstanding asthma maintenance plan. Insurance status and ethnicity significantly pre-dicted patient returns to the ED. More specifically, odds ratios showed that insured pa-tients were significantly, and 3 to 4.4 times, more likely to return to the ED. African Americans were 1.8 times more likely to return to the ED than Caucasians. Neither hos-pital admittance nor language significantly predicted a return visit. Results will help iden-tify patient groups needing different approaches in the intervention program for pediatric asthma management.

Learning Objectives:

• 1.) Understand the importance and challenges of surveillance for pediatric asthma in Emergency Department settings.
• 2.) Understand characteristics of patients who seek care for pediatric asthma in an Emergency Department setting.
• 3.) Understand characteristics of patients who seek repeated care for pediatric asthma in the Emergency Department setting.

Keywords: Asthma, Emergency Department/Room

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.