EPHT Asthma Indicator: Asthma Hospitalizations    

To see explanations, tables, graphs and maps for each measure, click on the measure name below.

Annual Number of Hospitalizations  – Annual number of hospitalizations by state, county and year.

 

Average Daily Number of Hospitalizations  – Average daily number of hospitalizations by state, county and year.

 

Crude Annual Hospitalization Rates – Crude (unadjusted) hospitalization rates by state, county, and year.

 

Age-adjusted Annual Hospitalization Rates – Age-adjusted rates hospitalization rates by state, county and year.

 

Age-specific Annual Hospitalization Rates – Age-specific hospitalization rates by state, county and year.

Or, click here to see the full EPHT report on Asthma and Heart Attack Hospitalizations (pdf).

Information about Indicators: Indicators provide information about a population’s health status with respect to environmental factors when clear measurable links are not available. As part of the nationwide EPHT network implementation, work groups developed indicators and measures. Guidelines were established for the collection of data and the calculation of measures in a nationally-consistent way (called Nationally Consistent Data and Measures, or NCDMs).

Tracking asthma hospitalizations will let Oregon EPHT look more closely at the relationship between asthma to indoor and outdoor pollutants by examining trends, geographic or demographic differences, and targeting interventions to those most in need of care. Click on the indicators link below to learn more about what information the Oregon EPHT program collects about asthma.

For more information about environmental health indicators from the CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/indicators/introduction.htm

Calculations: The asthma hospitalization measures calculated by EPHT are counts and rates for the years 2000 to 2006. Counts include the monthly (average, maximum, minimum) and annual number of hospitalizations, by state and county. Annual crude, age-specific and age-adjusted hospitalization rates are shown by state and county.

Data sources: Data used in the calculation of these measures were collected by the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems for the Hospital Discharge Index (HDI). The HDI provides a central database of all Oregon hospital discharges for public health surveillance and hospital policy analysis. Information on emergency room visits, urgent care, outpatient surgery and clinic visits is not included in this database.

Only hospital admissions with a primary diagnosis of asthma (ICD-9 Code 493) are included in the calculation of these measures. Rates are calculated using U.S. Census Bureau annual population estimates; age adjustments are based on the standard U.S. population using 2000 census numbers.

Transfers from one hospital to another that occurred on the same day or the day following the initial admission for a particular heath event have been excluded from the calculation of these measures. Duplicate records have also been excluded.

Confidentiality is protected through the application of the confidentiality guidelines from the Center for Health Statistics in the Oregon Department of Human Services. These guidelines allow for the release of all the statistics on these pages.

For more information about this data, please contact the Oregon Office of Disease Prevention and Epidemiology: http://www.oregon.gov/dhs/ph/odpe

___________________________________________________________________________________________________