Trends in asthma readmissions among children and adolescents over time by age, gender and season

Abstract

Objectives: Little is known about asthma readmissions within 28 days over time by age or gender. We explored trends in childhood asthma hospital readmission rates over time by age, gender and season. Methods: Using a large database of 53156 childhood admissions with a primary diagnosis of asthma from the Department of Health Victoria Australia for 1997-2009, we explored asthma hospital readmissions rates by seasonality, gender and age (2-18 years) using chi square tests, logistic regression models and graphical techniques. Results: Approximately 9459 (28%) of the children had two or more admissions over the whole study period, contributing to 55% (29056/53156) of all admissions. Approximatel..