Diagnosing asthma: RESULTS (1)

Of the 2479 subjects with complete information from both the survey and the administrative data, 169 (6.8%) reported an asthma attack in the previous 12 months and 172 (6.9%) were on asthma medication at that time. Two hundred fourteen (8.6%) reported either having an asthma attack or taking asthma medication, and 127 (5.1%) reported both having an asthma attack and taking asthma medication. A sample of those subjects using medication reported that they took inhaled bronchodilators (87.5%) and anti-inflammatory drugs (34.4%). The vast majority of those who had had an asthma attack or who were using medication also reported that their asthma had been confirmed in the past by a physician. This percentage was 87.0% for those reporting an asthma attack, 81.4% for those reporting the use of medication, 79.0% for those reporting either and 92.1% for those reporting both. One hundred subjects (4.0%) had a physician claim for asthma in the year before the survey. This number increased to 131 (5.3%) for the two years before, 154 (6.2%) for the three years before, 169 (6.8%) for the four years before and 187 (7.5%) for the five years before the survey.

Category: Diagnosing asthma

Tags: Administration, Asthma, Data linkage, Database, Survey, Validation data linkage