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Hospital Discharge Rates and Deaths from Asthma in the Hunter Health Region (NSW) 1971–72 to 1975–76
Author(s) -
Hardes G. R.,
Allomes J.,
Leeder S. R.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.596
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1445-5994
pISSN - 0004-8291
DOI - 10.1111/j.1445-5994.1979.tb03385.x
Subject(s) - medicine , asthma , public health , demography , population , hospital discharge , emergency medicine , pediatrics , environmental health , general surgery , nursing , sociology
Summary: During the five years 1971–72 to 1975–76 annual total discharges of patients with a primary diagnosis of asthma from public hospitals in the Hunter Health Region (NSW) fluctuated only slightly. The number of discharges did not reflect consistently the underlying population distribution. Significantly more discharges than expected occurred among people living in the drier inland areas of the Region. Over the same period 65 residents of the Hunter Health Region were certified dead with asthma as the primary cause. In 29, death occurred at one of the Region's public hospitals but only eight were admitted as hospital inpatients primarily with asthma. Of the 65 asthma deaths, 36 (55.4%) occurred outside the Region's public hospitals.