Most Current Statistic: 

• Emergency Room Visit Rate per 100,000 due to Asthma for Adults (2021): 283.7*
• Definition: Age-Adjusted Asthma Emergency Department (ED) Visit Rate per 100,000 Among Adults [18+] 
• Data Source & Year: Indiana Hospital Discharge Data, 2021
• Suggested Citation: Indiana Department of Health Office of Data and Analytics [IDOH ODA]. (2021). Indiana Hospital Discharge Data, 2021. Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) 

*As the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are still being researched, information on the impacts to asthma emergency department visits in the state of Indiana will be updated as research becomes available and further analysis has been completed.

Last Updated: February 28, 2023 

The Indiana Department of Health (IDOH)’s Chronic Respiratory Disease Section (CRDS) works under the grant cooperative agreement CDC-RFA-EH19-1902, titled ‘A Comprehensive Public Health Approach to Asthma Control Through Evidence-Based Interventions’.

Under the cooperative agreement CRDS’s purpose is to improve the reach, quality, effectiveness, and sustainability of asthma control services and to reduce asthma morbidity, morality, and disparities by implementing evidence-based strategies across multiple sectors.

The activities also align with the CDC Initiative, Controlling Childhood Asthma Reducing Emergencies (CCARE) – an objective of the prevention of 500,000 Emergency Department (ED) visits and hospitalization due to asthma among children with asthma by August 31, 2024. Along with our multi-sector partners, the use of evidence-based interventions, outlined in the CDC’s National Asthma Control Program (NACP)’s ‘EXHALE’ technical package we continue to expand the reach and access to quality care to individuals with asthma.

Asthma Hospital Data can be used to inform the public about asthma hospitalizations and emergency department visits and for the program planning and evaluation by state and local partners. 

Use for Asthma Hospitalization Surveillance:

Asthma hospitalization data can be used to examine the statewide severity of asthma, both from the perspective of the community and from the perspective of individual persons. Some of the questions these data can answer are:

• What are the numbers and rates of hospitalizations for asthma?
• Are the asthma hospitalization rates higher than the national rate or the HP2030 objectives?
• Do asthma hospitalization rates vary by age, sex, race, ethnicity, and/or geography?
• What are the yearly trends in asthma hospitalization rates?

The CDC's National Asthma Control Program (NACP) developed EXHALE, a set of 6 strategies that each contribute to better asthma control. Each EXAHLE strategy has been proven to reduce asthma-related hospitalizations, emergency department visits, and healthcare costs. Using the EXHALE strategies together in a community can have the greatest impact.

Education: on asthma self-management

X-tinguishing: smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke

Home: visits for trigger reduction and asthma self-management education

Achievement: of guidelines-based medical management

Linkages: and coordination of care across settings

Environmental: policies or best practices to reduce asthma triggers from indoor, outdoor, or occupational sources

Limitations of Data:

• Because of multiple hospital admissions for individual persons, these data represent the number of hospitalizations, not the number of persons hospitalized. Without patient identifiers, there is no way to determine how many times a person was hospitalized. However, each hospitalization is an adverse even or major consequences to the person, and thus the count and rate of total hospitalizations is the best reflection of the public health burden experienced by the community.

Data Source: 

Indiana Hospital Discharge Data is released annually by the Office of Data and Analytics (ODA) at the Indiana Department of Health (IDOH).

Inpatient, Outpatient, and Emergency Department (ED) data can be found aggregated for specific conditions and found on IDOH's Stats Explorer.

"All non-federal acute care hospitals are required to report inpatient and outpatient hospital discharges per IC 16-21-6-6. Long-term care, rehabilitation, and behavioral health hospitals may voluntarily report. Data are shared for all reporting hospitals, and the number of reporting hospitals varies by year." 

For more Information on Indiana Hospital Discharge Data Documentation: IDOH's Office of Data and Analytics Documentation Page 

Helpful Data Definitions: 

• Inpatient hospital discharages or hospitalizations: hospital discharges in which a patient was admitted to the hospital. 
• Outpatient hospital discharges: hospital discharges in which a patient received health services without being admitted to the hospital. 
• Emergency Department (ED) visits: outpatient hospital discharges where emergency department services were provided. Inpatient hospitalization may also involve emergency department services but are not included in the counts of emergency department visits.