Asthma Hospitalizations Data

The numbers and rates of asthma hospitalizations in Iowa by year, age group, and gender.

If an asthma measure is going up or down over time.

If a segment of a population is at higher risk for hospitalization due to asthma.

To inform the public about asthma hospitalizations.

For program planning and evaluation by state and local partners.

What causes asthma, or what leads to asthma hospitalizations.

The total burden of asthma in a population.

The number of people who are hospitalized due to asthma. Because personal identifiers are removed from the hospital discharge data before analysis, individuals who have multiple hospitalizations cannot be identified.

Hospitalization and emergency department data are collected by the Iowa Hospital Association on behalf of HHS in accordance with Iowa Code section 135.166.

Bridged-race population estimates from the National Center for Health Statistics and US Census. Data from 2000 to 2009 are based on intercensal population estimates and 2010-most current year are based on the postcensal population estimates.

The Iowa Public Health Tracking portal displays hospitalization data from the year 2000 through the most recent year of data available.

Hospitalizations are defined as Iowa residents who are discharged from a hospital in Iowa.

Asthma hospitalizations have a primary discharge diagnosis of asthma.

Asthma is defined as the International Classification of Disease 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes that begin with 493.

Asthma is defined as the International Classification of Disease 10th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) codes that begin with J44 or J45.

Multiple hospitalizations by the same patient cannot be identified, and are not excluded.

These data are not appropriate for estimating the total burden of asthma.

These measures use hospital admission dates while other public health programs use the hospital discharge dates to count asthma cases. This may cause a difference in asthma rates between the Tracking Network and other public health websites.

Iowa residents discharged from hospitals in surrounding states are not included, so hospitalization rates for counties in which residents are likely to receive care in a surrounding state may be underestimated. Rates for counties in which residents are likely to visit hospitals that do not submit data to the Iowa Hospital Association (e.g., Veteran's Administration, Indian Health Services hospitals, and institutionalized populations) may also be artificially low.