What are important issues for using asthma hospital discharge data to assess possible asthma-related problems?
People who are hospitalized with asthma represent only a small proportion of people who have asthma, because hospitalizations are people whose condition was serious enough to require a hospital stay. Asthma is one of the leading chronic diseases of the lungs. The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System estimated that 8.7% of adults in New York State in 2007 had current asthma, while the hospital discharge rate due to asthma was more than two hospitalizations per 100 adults with current asthma for the same time period. Asthma hospitalizations are the result of exposure to factors that trigger asthma episodes (see Asthma Triggers ) as well as access to quality primary care. Good quality primary care that emphasizes treatment leading to effective management of the disease on a long-term basis may reduce the number of severe asthma episodes that requires a hospitalization. Therefore, it is important to monitor hospitalizations for asthma to assess the burden of the disease as well as to
