Global Asthma Epidemiology: 78 Asthma Admission Rates in Germany: An Analysis of the Nationwide DRG-Statistic of the Year 2009

摘要

BackgroundWithin the OECD Health Care Quality Indicators (HCQI) Project up to 21 countries participated in calculations of 6 indicators on care for chronic conditions. Those so-called Health Promotion, Prevention and Primary Care Indicators originally had been introduced by the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and rely on the principal diagnoses of an adult hospitalization stored in a hospital administrative database. 2007 age-sex standardized asthma admission rates varied considerably across the countries and ranged from 17 (Italy) to 120 (United States) admissions per 100,000 population (OECD mean: 51). It was concluded that asthma outpatient treatment was not optimal in countries reporting higher rates. Germany provided the third lowest asthma admission rate of 21 (Health at a Glance 2009 OECD Indicators. ). As data collections from various countries can differ in, e.g. coding responsibility, incentives for coding, and implementation of coding guidelines, international variations cannot exclusively be explained by differences in health system performance. This study aimed to calculate asthma admission rates separately for all 16 Federal States of Germany, assuming national comparisons are not biased by these factors.