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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Lakota Kruse, MD, MPH, Family Health Services, New Jersey Department of Health & Senior Services, PO Box 364, Trenton, NJ 08625-0364, (609) 292-5656, lkruse@doh.state.nj.us and Sandhya Deshpande, MCH Epidemiology Program, New Jersey Department of Health & Senior Services, PO Box 364, Trenton, NJ 08625-0364.

BACKGROUND: Asthma is the most frequent reason for preventable hospital admissions among children. Few surveillance efforts include both emergency department (ED) and inpatient hospitalizations and deduplicate for the individual child.

OBJECTIVES: Describe the epidemiology of pediatric asthma ED visits and hospital admissions.

METHODS: Emergency department (ED) and hospital discharge records for asthma (ICD-9 Code=493 in the first discharge diagnosis position) for pediatric patients (0 – 19 years old) in New Jersey during 2004 were combined into one dataset. The dataset of ED visits and hospitalization admissions was deduplicated using probabilistic matching software (AUTOMATCH) to identify children with multiple ED visits and/or hospital admissions. ED visits and hospitalizations were reported as ratios (per records) and rates (per child) by age and race/ethnicity categories.

RESULTS: Within the dataset (N= 26,533 records), 85% of records were ED records and 15% were hospitalization records. ED visit rates (per child) were highest for the youngest age group (1 – 4 years old) and for black non-Hispanics. ED visit rates and hospitalization rates displayed similar patterns of variation by age and race/ethnicity groups. Hospitalization ratios (children hospitalized per children with ED visit) were similar across race/ethnicity groups.

IMPLICATIONS: Pediatric asthma surveillance can be enhanced by combining ED and hospitalization records. Similar hospitalization ratios across race/ethnicity suggest similar management of acute asthma. Variation patterns by age and race/ethnicity in ED visits rates and hospitalization rates indicate persistent disparities in chronic asthma.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• Describe the epidemiology of pediatric asthma emergency department (ED) visits and hospital admissions.
• Compare ED visits and hospital admissions by counts and individuals.
• Compare asthma ED visit and hospitalization rates by race/ethnicity and age.

Keywords: Asthma, Surveillance

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered