Asthma mortality in Spain from 1980 to 2019. Trends and perspectives in new treatment era

Background: Previous studies suggest that asthma mortality rates in Spain are decreasing but this trend was not observed for younger age groups. Objetive: To analyse mortality rates of asthma from the last 40 years, focusing on changes related with the development of new therapeutic approaches. Methods: Death records and mid-year population data were collected from the National Statistics Institute. By using the direct method, age-standardized mortality rates were calculated for overall population and for each sex and age group. Significant changes in mortality trends were identified by Joinpoint regressions. The independent effects of age, period and cohort (APC) and Potential Years of Life Lost (PYLL) due to asthma were also analysed. Results: Age-standardized asthma mortality rates decreased in Spain from 7.38 to 2.03 deaths per 100 000 from the first to the last quinquennium of the study (1980–1984 to 2015–2019) for the overall population. This decrease is more intense among men, where a decrease from 10.37/100.000 to 0.91/100.000 was observed versus 5.53 to 2.77/100.000 in women. All age groups have decreased mortality. While> 64 have stabilized their decline and 35-64 have even increased in the last 3 years, <35 maintain a rapid decline since the 1990s. Conclusion: There is a decline in asthma mortality rates starting in 1980, including younger cohorts starting in the 1990s, confirming earlier trends. Improved diagnosis and development of new therapies for asthma may they have a role in this event. Close monitoring of asthma mortality rates is necessary to confirm these trends.

An audit of the British Thoracic Society asthma discharge care bundle in a teaching hospital

Background: The UK asthma mortality rate has risen by 33% over a decade. The national enquiry into 195 asthma-related deaths revealed that most of these deaths were preventable. The Asthma Discharge Care Bundle (ADCB) is recommended for use when discharging patients with an acute asthma attack and/or exacerbation. Aim: To review the implementation of the British Thoracic Society (BTS) bundle in a teaching hospital. Methods: A 12-month retrospective audit was conducted on 86 adult patients treated for asthma attacks. Findings: The results of the audit indicated that the hospital has complied with the ADCB. In total, 85% of patients had their inhaler technique checked, but 62% of them were not provided with any written inhaler use instructions. The respiratory clinical nurse specialists were more compliant with most of the bundle statements than the medical team. Conclusion: The findings highlighted the need for asthma education sessions for all health professionals with emphasis on record-keeping skills.

Asthma Mortality and Hospitalizations in Mexico from 2010 to 2018: Retrospective Epidemiologic Profile

Acute respiratory infections have been established as the principal cause of disease in the Mexican population from 2000 to 2018; however, even when these diseases may aggravate asthma, there is a lack of epidemiologic evidence on the health outcomes when both conditions coexist. Learning about the asthma hospitalizations trends will help us identify monthly variation of hospitalizations, vulnerable groups, needed services, and improvements in therapeutics and prevention. This study aims to analyze the variation in asthma hospitalizations and mortality during the 2010–2018 period in Mexico. Data were obtained from the General Board of Health Information (DGIS) Open Access datasets, which were analyzed taking hospital discharges and hospital deaths recorded from 2010 to 2018 from all public hospitals nationwide. The binomial logistic regression analyses were performed to determine the association between patient ages, hospitalization month, and mortality. The death rate from asthma in Mexico decreased between 2010 and 2018. Still, the hospital mortality rate shows recent improvement; however, prognosis of hospitalized patients depends on their age, accurate diagnosis, length of hospital stay and occurrence of nosocomial infection.

Quarantining At Home Controls COVID-19 Exposes, May Increase Asthma Mortality

The novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) firstly, was identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. The isolated virus was identified as genus β-coronavirus, placing it alongside other SARS and MERS. At the 1 May 2020, over 200 countries have confirmed cases, the number of patients infected by the virus has now surpassed 3,301,792 and with 233,729 deaths from the virus. Compared with mortality for the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), COVID-19 is being responsible for more total deaths because of the increased transmission speed. The WHO has raised global coronavirus Disease outbreak risk to "Very High", and SARS-CoV-2 infection was become a serious threat to public health. Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is main problem is infected patients that leads to hospitalization of large number of people.