Asthma is a chronic health condition that makes breathing more difficult and results in symptoms such as shortness of breath, wheezing, and coughing. It is one of the most common chronic diseases in children, but it impacts adults too. Asthma can be managed through medication and regular doctor visits. Environmental factors such as tobacco smoke, indoor and outdoor air pollution, and allergens have been linked to increased asthma attacks.

Source: Asthma. (2016, December 14). CDC. Retrieved from  https://ephtracking.cdc.gov/showAsthmaAndEnv

Hospitalization data is used to assess the extent and severity of disease occurring in specific areas or groups of people. This data can be used to monitor trends over time, identify groups that are at a higher risk of disease, and inform disease prevention programs.

Interpreting Data

• Age-Adjusted Rates: Rates are presented as an age-adjusted rate with a 95% confidence interval. Age-adjusted rates adjust for differences in the distribution of age between populations, to allow many populations to be compared with one another.

• Confidence Intervals: A confidence interval is a range in which the true value is likely to fall. The confidence level is the probability that the confidence interval includes the true value. This dashboard uses a 95% confidence level.

• Rate per 10,000: A rate per 10,000 is shown in order to make comparisons easier. A rate per 10,000 describes the number of events or illnesses that occurred in a population of 10,000 people. Rates were calculated using the number of hospitalizations as the numerator. The denominator is the estimated mid-year resident population. The rates were age-adjusted to the 2000 U.S. Standard Population.

About the Data

• Rates presented for hospitalization show the number of hospitalizations per 10,000 population. Rates do not show the proportion of the population with a specific condition or the number of people who were hospitalized due to that condition.

• Rates are calculated using MCPHD Epidemiology population estimates, which are based on U.S. Census Bureau population estimates.

• ZIP Codes with fewer than 20 hospitalizations were excluded to protect patient privacy and maintain the credibility of our estimates.

• ZIP Codes with unstable rates were excluded due to their unreliability. Unstable rates are those where the width of their 95% confidence interval is >60% of the rate itself. In these situations, the rates are unreliable and could provide misleading information.

• ZIP Codes 46077 and 46163 were excluded due to having considerable populations outside of Marion County. ZIP Code 46206 was excluded due to no one living in that ZIP Code.

• These data include only Marion County residents who were admitted to either a Marion County hospital or a hospital elsewhere in Indiana. Marion County residents who were admitted to an out-of-state hospital are not included. Non-Marion County residents are excluded. Residency is based on the address patients provided at the hospital.

• Hospitalization data was collected from hospital records containing ICD-10-CM codes that were chosen to include stays where the discharge diagnosis was related to each condition. For asthma hospitalizations, the code used was ICD-10-CM J45.

• Use and quality of ICD-10-CM coding across hospitals and within hospitals varies due to differences in practice patterns and billing procedures. Differences seen in the data may be attributable to these factors.

• Differences in data over time may be due to differences in ICD-10-CM coding, fluctuations in data quality, percentage of data reported, and hospital admission practices.

• Transfers from other hospitals and multiple hospitalizations of the same person are counted as separate hospitalizations.