Asthma hospitalization rates and asthma mortality in Chilean Children: 2008-2014

Abstract

Introduction: In Chile there was a significant increase in asthma hospitalization rates among children from 3.8 per 10.000 inhabitants in 2001 to 7.8 per 10.000 inhabitants in 2014. Objectives: The aim of this study was to known if there are regional differences in asthma hospitalization rates among Chilean children and to know asthma mortality in this population. Methods: To obtain asthma hospitalization rates we took information from the National Hospital Database. We selected patients who were hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of asthma using the International Classification of Diseases-10. We included patients 5 to 15 years old hospitalized for asthma exacerbations in the 15 Regions of our country from 2008 to 2014. The population size for the selected ages and Regions was taken from the National Institute of Statistics of Chile. A similar method was made to obtain the asthma mortality rate in Chilean children. Results: The mean age of hospitalized children was 8,5 ± 2,7 years, male gender was predominant (57,58%) and the mean length of hospital stay was 3 days (range 1-12). There was a large variation in asthma hospitalization rates among the regions analyzed, from 1.66 per 10,000 inhabitants up to 7.38 per 10,000 inhabitants. During the study period asthma hospitalization rates remained stable in most regions with a significant increase over time in three of them and a decrease in only one. The asthma mortality rate for the analyzed period was 0,37 per 100,000 inhabitants. Conclusions: Important regional differences in asthma hospitalization rates in Chilean children was observed, with a low global mortality rate.