PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Sheila Grecian
AU  - Robert Grecian
AU  - Sandra Dermott
AU  - Haval Balata
AU  - Abdul Ashish
AU  - Imran Aziz
TI  - The relationship between social deprivation and hospital admissions with asthma
DP  - 2013 Sep 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - P957
VI  - 42
IP  - Suppl 57
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/42/Suppl_57/P957.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/42/Suppl_57/P957.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2013 Sep 01; 42
AB  - BackgroundMany factors are known to predispose to hospital admissions with acute asthma. However there are no recent studies addressing the relationship between social deprivation and asthma admissions.Aims and ObjectivesTo analyse the effect of social deprivation on hospital admissions and length of stay in patients with acute asthma.MethodsRetrospective review of hospitalisation of patients with a primary diagnosis of asthma between 01/09/11 and 31/08/12 in Wigan UK. Patients were assigned an index of multiple deprivation score based on postcode and subdivided into quintiles. For each quintile, total admissions and length of stay per admission were calculated and corrected for population size (per 100,000 residents). Fishers exact test (two tailed) was used to compare quintiles. The least derived group constituted only <5% of the population and was excluded.ResultsThere were significantly higher numbers of admissions in patients from more deprived postcodes compared to affluent areas (p<0.0001). There was no significant difference in mean length of stay between quintiles.View this table:Asthma admissions and length of stayConclusionsPatients from socio-economically deprived backgrounds have higher rates of hospital admissions with acute asthma in Wigan. Deprivation does not appear to influence length of stay. Increasing healthcare investement in deprived areas should be considered.