Pediatric asthma exacerbations seen in the emergency department : a descriptive study of factors that influence hospitalization as an outcome

To determine predictors of hospitalization as an outcome for pediatric patients experiencing a severe asthma exacerbation seen in the Emergency Department (ED), specific to Department of Defense (DoD) beneficiaries, a secondary data analysis was conducted on DoD data. Verran's (1997) theory-driven framework was used to guide the selection of variables and analysis. The study controlled for asthma severity and structure. Using variables identified through a literature review, a group of subjects with hospitalization as an outcome (n = 74) was compared to a group of subjects without hospitalization as an outcome (n = 158) by means of analysis of differences procedures. Logistic regression was conducted using the variables found to be statistically significant. Subjects with a history of intubation (OR= .066), having been admitted for asthma within 1 year (OR= .307), corticosteroid administered intravenously or intramuscularly (OR= .238) and the number ofbeta2-agonists administered (OR= 1.832) were the statistically significant variables.Digitized from a paper copy provided by the Arizona Health Sciences Library