TY - JOUR T1 - Asthma Health Services Utilization Before, During, and After Pregnancy: A Population-Based Cohort Study JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J DO - 10.1183/13993003.00209-2018 SP - 1800209 AU - Teresa To AU - Laura Y. Feldman AU - Jingqin Zhu AU - Andrea S. Gershon Y1 - 2018/01/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/early/2018/03/01/13993003.00209-2018.abstract N2 - During pregnancy, women with asthma may be at higher risk of exacerbation. The objective of this study was to determine whether women with asthma in Ontario, Canada have increased health services utilization (HSU) during pregnancy.Rates of asthma-specific, asthma-related and non-pregnancy-related HSU were calculated in a population-based cohort of pregnant women with asthma. Poisson regression with repeated measures was used to determine adjusted rate ratios and 95% confidence intervals of HSU during and one year after pregnancy, compared to the year before pregnancy.The cohort consisted of 103,976 women. Compared to the year prior to pregnancy, hospitalization rates per 100 person-months during pregnancy increased 30% for asthma (0.016 to 0.020), 24% for asthma-related conditions (0.012 to 0.015) and decreased 37% for non-pregnancy-related conditions (0.24 to 0.15). Emergency department visits for asthma and asthma-related conditions did not significantly increase during pregnancy. During pregnancy, physician office visits decreased 19% for asthma (2.20 to 1.79), 10% for asthma-related conditions (9.44 to 8.47) and increased 77% for non-pregnancy-related conditions (5.64 to 9.82).Hospitalizations for asthma and asthma-related conditions increased during pregnancy, demonstrating that the overall increase in non-pregnancy-related physician office visits may not meet the primary care needs of pregnant women with asthma.Women in Ontario, Canada have increased hospitalizations and reduced primary care visits for asthma during pregnancyFootnotesThis manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the European Respiratory Journal. It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJ online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article.Conflict of interest: Dr. To has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Laura Feldman has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Jingqin Zhu has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Gershon has nothing to disclose. ER -