20-YEAR TRENDS IN ASTHMA HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS IN CANADA

Abstract

TYPE: Late Breaking Abstract TOPIC: Obstructive Lung Diseases PURPOSE: To investigate 20-year trends in asthma-related hospitalizations in Canada. METHODS: Using the Canadian comprehensive nationwide hospitalization data (1998–2017), we identified hospital admissions with the main diagnostic International Classification of Diseases codes for asthma. We analyzed sex-specific age-standardized trends in annual hospitalization rates among pediatric (<19 years) and adult (19+ years) patients. We used change-point analysis to examine any substantial change in the trends in each of the sex-age groups. RESULTS: There were 452,228 asthma-related hospital admissions (53% pediatric, 52% female) during the study period. Among pediatric patients, age-adjusted annual rates per 100,000 decreased by 74% in both sexes from 1998 to 2017 (females: 262 to 69; males: 407 to 108). Among adult patients, the rates decreased by 87% in females (197 to 25) and 88% in males (96 to 11). Change-point analysis (Figure 1) indicated a substantial plateauing of the annual rate of decline in both pediatric (26.9 [females] and 34.9 [males] before 2003 to 0.1 [females] and 0.9 [males] after 2012) and adult patients (from 36.9 [females] and 18.6 [males] before 2003 to 2.3 [females] and 1.1 [males] after 2003). CONCLUSIONS: Following a major decline in hospital admissions for acute asthma, there has been minimal further decline since 2012 for all sex and age groups. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: The current hospitalisation rates represent an avoidable source of burden. Our study calls for future research to identify specific factors contributing to these trends, thereby potentially identifying avenues where we can further improve asthma outcomes with existing preventive and therapeutic interventions and policies. DISCLOSURE: Nothing to declare. KEYWORD: Asthma