Prepared by: Victoria Zakrajšek 
Date of last change: March 2017

Purpose and justification of the indicator

Asthma represents a significant burden due to poorer quality of life. It is one of the obstructive diseases of the respiratory tract and is the most common chronic disease in children, but it also affects many adults. Many risk factors are associated with a higher prevalence of asthma: genetic (female gender in adulthood, male gender in childhood and heredity), nutritional, biological (lower respiratory tract infections, presence of domestic animals), prenatal and perinatal factors, smoking (active and passive). and environmental exposure. The impact of polluted air on health is complex. One of the basic air pollutants are dust particles, which are produced when fossil fuels are burned. The most dangerous particles are smaller than &mu;g, which penetrate deep into the lungs, into the alveoli. Results of epidemiological studies, v which studied short-term exposure to PM10 dust particles, show an increased mortality rate from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, an increased number of asthma attacks in children and worsening of the course of pre-existing asthma, a decline in lung function and an increased number of airway inflammations, resulting in an increase in the number of admissions child to the hospital. Therefore, it is a major public health problem for all countries, regardless of their level of development. As asthma has a major negative impact on everyday life for many patients, primary prevention and control of asthma, rather than prescribing medication, is the focus of treatment. In order to successfully control asthma in children and adolescents, as well as to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of prevention and treatment policies and programs, it is necessary to monitor health indicators in a high-quality manner.

Definition of indicator

The rate of hospital admissions due to asthma in children and adolescents describes the number of hospital admissions due to asthma in children and adolescents aged between 0 and 19 years per 1,000 children and adolescents in the observed calendar year. An age-standardized rate is calculated, which enables mutual comparison of populations with different age structures.

Unit of measure

Calculation of the indicator

The standardized rate of hospital admissions due to asthma is the ratio between the number of hospital admissions with the main discharge diagnosis of asthma in persons under 20 years of age in the observed calendar year and the number of residents aged 0 to 19 inclusive in the middle of the same year, multiplied by 1,000.
The disease categories according to the ICD-10 classification, which are included in the calculation, are J45 and J46. Only first admissions for hospital treatment due to these diagnoses are included.
Asthma in children and adolescents
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The direct standardization method is used for standardization, where the Slovenian population from 2014 is used as the standard population. The 2016 publications show the average of three consecutive years (2011-2013), and the publications from 2017 onwards show the average of five consecutive years.

Data sources for Slovenia

Record of Diseases, Poisonings, and Injuries Requiring Hospital Treatment, National Institute of Public Health.
Population, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia.

Time availability

Data on hospital treatments are published annually.

Men in literature

1. National Institute of Public Health ( <a href="http://www.nijz.si/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.nijz.si/</a> ) 2. Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia ( <a href="http://www.stat.si/StatWeb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.stat.si/StatWeb</a> ) 3. Health for All Database ( <a href="https://gateway.euro.who.int/en/datasets/european-health-for-alldatabase/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://gateway.euro.who.int/en/datasets/european-health-for-alldatabase/</a> ) 4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Asthma kids - Data and Statistics ( <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/asthma/children.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.cdc.gov/asthma/children.htm</a> )

Health status

Prepared by: Metka Zaletel 
Date of last modification: September 2016

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Date of last change: January 2018

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Prepared by: Sonja Tomšič 
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Date of last change: March 2019

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