Paediatric Emergency Asthma Presentations: Temporal Trends and Representations in Rural Australia.

Abstract

Asthma is a key illness driving children to present to emergency departments, and although paediatric emergency asthma presentations have been examined, the temporal trends remain somewhat elusive. The aim is to highlight, describe, and model the temporal trends of emergency paediatric asthma presentations, using comprehensive hospital emergency presentation data. A retrospective cross-sectional study examined de-identified paediatric (0 to 14 years) emergency asthma presentation data over a three-year period. Data were obtained from nine healthcare facilities in Victoria, Australia. Episode-level data were collected through RAHDaR, a comprehensive emergency data register which includes missing data (35.0%) among rural health facilities not currently captured elsewhere. Monthly presentation rates demonstrate a significant difference in presentations between fall/autumn and spring, and males had higher presentation rates in February and June-August. Emergency presentations were more likely to occur Sunday-Tuesday, peaking in the time periods of 8-9 a.m., 11 a.m.-12 p.m., and 8-9 p.m. Significant differences were noted between all age groups. Examining previously unavailable rural data has highlighted patterns among emergency asthma presentations for children 0-14 years of age. Knowledge of these by season, month, and day of the week, in combination with time of day, offers scope for more focused workforce education and planning, and nuanced referral pathways, particularly in resource-limited settings.