Epidemiology of asthma in children in Kazakhstan: Data from Unified National Electronic Health System 2014-2021

We aimed to explore the epidemiology of asthma and the risk of hospital readmission in children registered in the Unified National Electronic Healthcare System (UNEHS) from 2014 to 2021 in Kazakhstan. The cohort consisted of patients under 18 years old with asthma defined as ICD-10 codes J45.x. Incidence rates per 100,000 population at risk were calculated. Socio-demographic factors were analyzed using bi- and multivariate statistical analyses. Cox regression analysis was used to examine factors associated with the risk of hospital readmission of children with asthma. Among 53,463 patients, 34,047 (63.68%) were male, 21,322 (39.88%) were hospitalized at least once, of whom 8,477 (39.76%) were readmitted. Median follow-up time was 3.70 (1.79-5.44) years. Incidence rates ranged from 171.4 to 63.0 cases among boys and from 106.5 to 35.7 among girls during 2014 and 2021. Factors associated with a higher risk of hospital readmission were younger age at diagnosis, ethnicity other than Kazakh or Russian, rural residence, and diagnoses of respiratory infections, respiratory failure, and allergic rhinitis (see Table 1). Table 1. Cox regression model of the risk of hospital readmission. <fig><object-id>erj;64/suppl_68/PA4923/F1</object-id><object-id>F1</object-id><object-id>F1</object-id><graphic></graphic></fig> The incidence of asthma decreased during the study period. Younger age, ethnicity, rural residence, and diagnoses of respiratory complications were associated with a higher risk of hospital readmissions in children with asthma.