Decrease in hospitalization for treatment of childhood asthma with increased use of antiinflammatory treatment, despite an increase in prevalence of asthma
Abstract
During the past 15 years, the prevalence of asthma in children in Sweden has doubled. However, since 1985, antiinflammatory treatment with inhaled steroids has increased continuously. The aim of this study was to analyze the net effect of these changes in terms of hospitalization of children for treatment of asthma. The numbers of hospital days, admissions, and individual patients admitted to the Children's Hospital in Göteborg because of acute asthma were recorded from 1985 through 1993. all the in-patient treatment of children is centralized at this hospital (i.e., the study was population-based). Göteborg has half a million inhabitants. Hospitalization policies were not altered during the study period. In children aged 2 to 18 years, the number of hospital days per year gradually decreased to less than a third (r = 0.9; p less than 0.001), and admissions decreased by 45% (r = 0.7; p less than 0.05). The decrease in hospitalization was most marked in the group older than the age of 5 years in which hospital days were reduced to one fifth (r = 0.9; p less than 0.0001) and admissions were halved (r = 0.8; p less than 0.05). A decreasing trend in number of hospital days was also seen in the 2- to 5-year-old group. The number of ...Continue Reading
Citations
A quality assurance review of outpatient care of children with life-threatening asthma exacerbations
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