Avtor/Urednik		Eržen, D; Roos, LL; Manfreda, J; Anthonisen, NR
Naslov		Changes in astma severity in Manitoba
Tip		članek
Vir		Chest
Vol. in št.		Letnik 108
Leto izdaje		1995
Obseg		str. 16-23
Jezik		eng
Abstrakt		Objective: To assess changes in the severity of physican-diagnosed asthma between 1983 and 1988. Design: cross-sectional studies examining the freqency of markers of asthma severity: hospitalizations, ICU admissions, hospital emergency department visits, multiple physician contacts, and referrals to specialists in patients aged 0 to 14 years, 14, to 34 years, and = more th. 35 years separately. Setting: physicians' claims data from the universal provincial health insurance plan for fiscal years 1983 and 1988. Patients: all patients with the diagnosis of asthma, bronchitis, and COPD identified from the Manitoba Health database. Measurements: the markers of severity were related to the prevalence of patients seeining a physician and receiving a diagnostic label of asthma, COPD, or bronchitis. Results: the number of patients with physician-diagnosed asthma increased by 36.4 percent over the 5 years. In 1983, 11 percent of asthmatics were hospitalized during the year and 8 percent were hospitalized in 1988 (-2.5 percent; 95 percent confidence interval (CI). -3.2 to -1.8 percent). During both years, about 75 percent of the patients hospitalized were in hospital once only. Mean and median duration on hospital stay declined. The percentage of asthmatic seen in the hospital emergency departments declined slightly in all age groups, the total being 21 percent in 1983 and 18 percent in 1988 (-3.5 percent; 95 percent CI, -4.5 to =2.5 percent). About one third of the patients with asthma were seen only once by a physician during both of the years examined, 43 to 45 percent of them bein g seen on three or more occasions during both years. Referrals to specialists for all asthmatics increased from 12 to 14 percent (1.9 percent, 95 percent CI, 1.0 to 2.8 percent) from 1983 to 1988. This was almost entirely due to an increase from 11 to 16 percent (5.1 percent; 95 percent CI, 4.0 to 6.2). (Truncated)
Deskriptorji		ASTHMA BRONCHITIS HOSPITALIZATION LUNG DISEASES, OBSTRUCTIVE MANITOBA PREVALENCE CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDIES SEVERITY OF ILLNESS INDEX