Abstract
Objective: The prevalence of adverse respiratory outcomes among children has been frequently associated with measurements of traffic-related exposures, and other data suggest asthma severity is worsened with residence near heavy...
Highlights
A total of 3297 children representing 4760 hospital encounters were identified as meeting the study criteria, of which 2480 children (75%) had one hospital encounter during the study period and 817 children (25%) had two or more
Hospital encounters for a primary diagnosis of asthma numbered 4018 (84%) and 742 were for a secondary diagnosis of asthma (16%)
Fifty-nine per cent of the study population resided in census block group areas where the median household income was below $50 000 and approximately half of the study population paid for their medical visit through government-sponsored health insurance or self payment
Summary
Study population Subjects for the study were drawn from hospital admission and discharge records from the Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) and the University Children’s Hospital of the University of California Irvine Medical Center (UCIMC) for the period between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2003. The inclusion criteria were as follows: aged 18 years or younger; one or more respiratory hospital encounters for a primary or secondary diagnosis of asthma (ICD-9 493) within the study period; and home residence in census block areas located within 13 km of either UCIMC or CHOC (catchment area). The two hospitals are located within 2.5 km of each other. We selected hospital encounters for a secondary asthma diagnosis because these encounters were probably the result of the impacts of the primary diagnosis on asthma symptoms. A unique hospital encounter for the present study was defined as either a visit to the ED or hospitalisation that occurred at least eight days apart. The 13 km radius from the two hospitals was chosen based on GIS density
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