Hospitalizations for kids with asthma higher in Sask.: report

Hospitalization rates for children with asthma have dropped significantly across Canada in the last 10 years, but low-income children are much more likely to end up in hospital than their high-income counterparts.

According to a report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), asthma is one of the leading causes of hospitalization among kids and teens, with more than 6,000 hospitalizations nationwide in 2015. Although rates have dropped by 50 per cent over the last decade nationally, Saskatchewan appears to be falling behind compared to other provinces and the national average.

“In the most recent year we have data, the rate for hospitalization for asthma of kids and youth is higher in Saskatchewan than the country as a whole,” said Sara Allin, a senior researcher within CIHI’s population health branch.

“The rate in Saskatchewan was 112 hospitalizations per 100,000 children compared to only 75 per 100,000 in Canada as a whole — so there is really room for improvement in Saskatchewan compared to some other provinces,” she said.

The majority of the kids taken to hospital are from low-income families. In Saskatchewan, their rate is 1.8 times higher than their peers growing up in high-income families.

Parents’ education levels also seem to affect the numbers, Allin said, noting that the study indicated children with parents who have less than a high school education are five times more likely to be hospitalized than children whose parents have a university master’s degree or a doctorate.

Although the causes, treatment and management of asthma are very complex, the higher rate of hospitalization for children living in low-income families could be linked to their families’ ability to pay out-of-pocket for preventive medications, or to their housing conditions, including exposure to second-hand smoke, mould or other airborne toxins, Allin said.

“What this study shows is that we can continue to make improvements. There’s a lot of opportunities to reduce this even further ... many of these hospitalizations can be avoided when the condition is managed effectively in the community.”