About 3 of every 10 children and teens who are admitted to the hospital from the emergency room have asthma, pneumonia, acute bronchitis or another respiratory disorder, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Asthma alone accounted for more than one-third of respiratory admissions ? 95,000 cases ? through the emergency room in 2004.
AHRQ also found that:
? Respiratory conditions are the leading cause of hospital admissions through the emergency room for infants and toddlers, accounting for nearly 40 percent of such admissions. For children age 5 to 9, respiratory illnesses account for 26 percent of admissions through the emergency room.
? However, among older children (10 to 14 years of age) and teenagers (ages 15 to 17), injuries become the leading reasons for admission, accounting for 24 percent and 30 percent, respectively, of emergency room-ordered admissions to hospitals. Respiratory disorders are the third- and fourth-leading cause of admissions through the emergency room for children age 10 to 14 years (12 percent) and teenagers age 15 to 17 (8 percent).
? In general, about half of the 2.3 million admissions of children and adolescents begin in hospital emergency departments.
This News and Numbers is based on data in Reasons for Being Admitted to the Hospital through the Emergency Department for Children and Adolescents, 2004 and Hospital Admissions that Began in the Emergency Department for Children and Adolescents, 2004. The reports use statistics from the HCUP Nationwide Inpatient Sample, a database of hospital inpatient stays that is nationally representative of all short-term, non-federal hospitals. The data are drawn from hospitals that comprise 90 percent of all discharges in the United States and include all patients, regardless of insurance type as well as the uninsured.