The North Carolina Asthma Program is pleased to announce the release of North Carolina’s first comprehensive asthma surveillance report, The Burden of Asthma in North Carolina, 2006.
The report covers a variety of topics relating to asthma surveillance. Topics include asthma morbidity, mortality, management, quality of life, health care utilization, and hospitalization.
The North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics (SCHS) has a wealth of data on the morbidity and mortality of asthma at both the state and county levels. The folders below contain descriptions and links to more specific information on the SCHS web site.
Mortality Statistics for the State and by county are available on the County Level Detailed Mortality Statistics page. Under the ICD-10 code, asthma deaths are classified as either J45.x (Asthma) or J46.x (Status Asthmaticus).
[Coding terminology for asthma, as well as other diseases, changed with ICD-10, which began in 1999. The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reports a comparability ratio of 0.8938 for the coding of asthma mortality under ICD-10 as compared to ICD-9. That is, about 11% fewer deaths will be coded as indicating that asthma was the underlying cause of death compared to those deaths coded under ICD-9 (National Asthma Training Curriculum).]
The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is a random telephone survey of state residents aged 18 and older in households with telephones. Through BRFSS, information is collected in a routine, standardized manner at the state level on a variety of health behaviors and preventive health practices related to the leading causes of death and disability. BRFSS interviews are conducted monthly and data are analyzed annually (on a calendar-year basis).
The annual survey began including asthma questions about the prevalence of lifetime and current asthma in the year 2000. The results are available on both a state and selected county basis. View the annual survey results to locate the year of data in which you are interested.
The Childhood Assessment and Monitoring Program (CHAMP) survey was developed in the fall of 2004 and implemented in January 2005. CHAMP is the first survey of its kind in North Carolina to measure the health characteristics of children, ages 0 to 17. Eligible children for the CHAMP survey are drawn each month from the BRFSS (Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System) telephone survey of adults, ages 18 and older. All adult respondents with children living in their households are invited to participate in the CHAMP survey. One child is randomly selected from the household and the adult most knowledgeable about the health of the selected child is interviewed in a follow-up survey. All questions about the selected child are answered only by the most knowledgeable adult. CHAMP surveys will be revised each year to meet the child health surveillance needs of North Carolina.
The SCHS has hospital discharge data on several diagnoses, including asthma (ICD-9 493.x). Rates are available for all persons, as well as those ages 0-14. Use caution interpreting the rates based on less than 20 discharges. These are rates per 100,000.
