[Hospital admissions for acute asthma in children]

Monitoring hospital admissions for acute asthma may give information regarding prevalence, severity and treatment of childhood asthma. In a retrospective population-based study, the medical records were studied for children aged one to 14 years admitted for asthma during four periods, each of two years, from 1984 to 2000.

Children aged one and two had the highest admission rates; both primary admission and re-admissions increased substantially throughout the period. For children aged three and four, total admission rates went up during the 1980s, but were down again during the 1990s. For older children there was a tendency towards declining admission rates over the study period. The use of systemic steroids at admission and pre-hospital inhaled corticosteroids increased substantially over the period.

For one and two-year-old children there was a continuous increase in both primary and readmission rates. Given better pre-hospital treatment there is a potential for lowering admission rates.