BACKGROUND: A 1998 CDC asthma surveillance summary cites Nebraska for the second highest asthma mortality rate at 23.3/million (all rates age–adjusted to 1970 US standard). Prevalence, morbidity, and mortality have been increasing nationally. The CDC encourages states to develop asthma surveillance systems using available data sources.
OBJECTIVE: Produce an asthma surveillance report from accessible data as a basis for subsequent prevention and intervention efforts, correlation studies, and coalition building.
DATA SOURCES: death certificates, Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System, Medicaid office visit encounters (HCFA1500), and hospital in–patient and emergency room discharges (UB–92).
RESULTS: For 1996—1998 Nebraska's asthma mortality rate was 27.2/million (169 deaths). Rates were higher for Blacks (118) than Whites (24), for females (29) than males (25), for urban counties (30) than rural (24), and for older than younger (monotonically increasing from 3 among those 0—4 years to 161 for those 65 years and older). Emergency room, hospital, and self–report information were analyzed as well.
CONCLUSIONS: Nebraska continues with a high death rate from asthma. Improved data systems will facilitate comparisons of state versus national asthma hospitalization and emergency room visit rates; present information suggests that the state has substantially lower rates for asthma hospitalizations and emergency room visits than the country as a whole. National data estimating asthma prevalence and office visits utilized different methodologies than those available to Nebraska now, so the hypothesis that the state does not differ substantially from the rest of the nation in these parameters awaits further data and study.
Learning Objectives: N/A
Keywords: Asthma, Surveillance
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.