Socioeconomic disparities and asthma treatments

Asthma is the most prevalent chronic illness in the United States. Disparities in asthma treatment in the emergency department prognosticate asthma outcomes in children and adult asthma patients. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between socio-economic/demographic factors (i.e., ethnicity, income level, insurance type, and location) of asthma patients and receipt of asthma treatment, evaluation, and management in emergency departments in Maryland. Methods: This study was a non-experimental research design. The representative population consisted of 146 adults and children with asthma in Maryland. One-hundred-forty-six cases with codes for management, evaluation, and treatment of mild, moderate, and severe persistent asthma symptoms were extracted from the 2009 State Emergency Department Databases (SEDD). Frequency distribution of the population by marital status, length of stay, gender, ethnicity, admission source, and admission type was displayed. The significance of ethnicity, income level, location, insurance type and management, evaluation, and treatment of mild, moderate, and severe persistent asthma was tested. Results: The number of African Americans presenting themselves to the emergency department for evaluation and management for mild persistent asthma was significantly higher than expected, X² (6, n = 107) = 17.213, p = .009. This was inconsistent with the literature which stated that African Americans and Hispanics used the emergency department more than any other ethnicity. No significance was found between location and asthma treatment, management, and evaluation; health insurance status and asthma treatment, management, and evaluation; income and asthma treatment, management, and evaluation. Gender was independent from age at admission, length of stay, number of procedures, and total charges. Conclusion: Inconsistent with the literature review the results of this study did not show significance the study variables except for relationship for ethnicity and asthma treatment, evaluation, and management