Holly Dieu: Department of Public Health, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina.
Gregory D Kearney: assistant professor, Department of Public Health, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina Kearneyg@ecu.edu.
Hui Bian: statistics and research consultant, Office for Faculty Excellence, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina.
Katherine Jones: social clinical research specialist, Department of Public Health, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina.
Arjun Mohan: assistant professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina.
The purpose of this study was to compare asthma-related emergency department (ED) visit rates across North Carolina. Results from this study can inform health planning while helping public health and health care professionals in identifying geographical areas and targeting age groups to reduce the asthma burden in North Carolina. This was a retrospective data analysis between 2010 and 2014 among North Carolina patients presenting to an ED with a first or second listed diagnosis code related to asthma (ICD-9-CM, 493.xx). Data was obtained from the North Carolina Disease Event Tracking and Epidemiology Collection Tool. Annual, age-adjusted rates were standardized to the 2000 US standard population using the direct method. Repeated measures ANOVA was conducted to compare differences between mean values of asthma-related ED visit rates in regions, urbanicity, and age groups across years. Asthma ED rates were consistently higher in the east (85.1 per 10,000) compared with other regions. While most age group ED rates fluctuated over the study period, univariate test results indicated statistical increases in ED asthma visits among the groups aged 5 to 9 years ( < .01), and 65 and over ( < .03). Public health officials should recognize the disproportionate burden of asthma-related ED visits, particularly among rural and impoverished counties in the eastern portion of North Carolina when prioritizing health concerns across North Carolina.
