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Effect of Gender, Age, and Severity of Asthma Attack on Patterns of Emergency Department Visits due to Asthma by Month and Day of the Week

  • Pulmonary Diseases
  • Published:
European Journal of Epidemiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective To examine the pattern and strength of seasonal fluctuations in emergency department (ED) visits due to asthma, by month and day of the week, by the patient’s age, gender, and severity of asthma attack.

Methods Time series analysis of ED visits was conducted among patients with asthma aged from 18 to 55 years who visited Ontario EDs between April 1, 2001 and March 31, 2004. Autoregressive regression models with months and days of the week as predictors were fitted for (1) all patients; (2) females and males separately; (3) each combination of gender and age group, and (4) each combination of gender and level of severity. The strength of seasonality in each group of patients was estimated from the R2-statistic derived from autoregression models.

Results For all patient groups, the highest number of ED visits occurred in October and December, and on Sundays and Mondays. Month of January and Fridays were associated with a decreased number of visits. The strength of seasonality was similar in men and women (R2 = 0.52), was the highest in young patients and decreased with age, in men more rapidly than in women. Severe cases of asthma attacks exhibited weaker seasonality (R2 = 0.30) compared to mild (R2 = 0.45) or moderate (R2 = 0.53) cases.

Conclusion The strength of seasonal patterns of asthma ED visits is influenced by age and the severity of attack, and to a lesser extent, gender. Understanding the significance of seasonal precipitants of asthma in different patients subgroups could lead to better management strategies.

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Abbreviations

CI:

confidence interval

CIHI:

Canadian Institute For Health Information

CTAS:

Canadian Triage Acuity Score

ED:

emergency department

IgE:

immunoglobulin E

NACRS:

National Ambulatory Care Reporting System

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Faculty of Health Sciences, 1200 Main St. W, L8N 3Z5, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Akerke Baibergenova, Lehana Thabane, Noori Akhtar-Danesh, Mitchell Levine & Amiram Gafni

  2. University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Rahim Moineddin

  3. Canadian Institute for Health Information, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Indra Pulcins

  4. Centre for Evaluation of Medicines, St Joseph’s Healthcare, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Lehana Thabane & Mitchell Levine

Authors
  1. Akerke Baibergenova
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  2. Lehana Thabane
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  3. Noori Akhtar-Danesh
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  4. Mitchell Levine
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  5. Amiram Gafni
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  6. Rahim Moineddin
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  7. Indra Pulcins
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Correspondence to Akerke Baibergenova.

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Baibergenova, A., Thabane, L., Akhtar-Danesh, N. et al. Effect of Gender, Age, and Severity of Asthma Attack on Patterns of Emergency Department Visits due to Asthma by Month and Day of the Week. Eur J Epidemiol 20, 947–956 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-005-3635-6

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