Asthma

Asthma Emergency Department (ED) Visits

This display shows the number and rate of asthma emergency department visits per 10,000 population. These data can tell us which counties have a higher number or rate of ED visits and if a rate is going up or down over time. To add a county to the trend chart, click a county on the map. To unselect a county, click the same county again.

Asthma Hospitalizations

This display shows the number and rate of asthma hospitalizations per 10,000 population. These data can tell us which counties have a higher number or rate of hospitalizations and if a rate is going up or down over time. To add a county to the trend chart, click a county on the map. To unselect a county, click the same county again.

Asthma Prevalence

These displays present information on the number and percentage of Maine adults with asthma as reported through the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a telephone survey. Asthma prevalence (current asthma) data is based on a yes response to 1)Have you ever been told by a doctor, nurse, or other health professional that you had asthma? and; 2) Do you still have asthma?

Asthma Town Data

This map shows the number and rate of asthma emergency department (ED) visits or hospitalizations per 10,000 population.

Asthma Tables

Create a custom table of data about asthma emergency department (ED) visits, asthma hospitalizations, or asthma prevalence.

Measure Definitions

• Emergency Department Visits and Hospitalizations

  • Visits with a primary diagnosis of asthma are included in the analysis.
  • Data for 2015 are not shown because hospitalization diagnostic coding transitioned from the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Edition, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) to the 10th Edition (ICD-10-CM) in October 2015. Caution is advised when comparing rates in years before 2015 to rates after 2016 due to the coding change.
  • Analyses are based on the year of admission to an emergency department or hospital. 

• Asthma Prevalence

  • Data represent the estimated count and percent of Maine adults who have current asthma as reported by the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a randomized telephone survey.

Data Limitations

• Emergency Department Visits and Hospitalizations

  • Visits associated with Maine’s Veteran’s Affairs Hospital and the Indian Health Service are not included. 
  • Due to the transition from ICD-9-CM coding practices to ICD-10-CM, 2015 data are not included. 
  • Only Maine residents seen at Maine hospitals are included when data are analyzed by place of residence. Out-of-state residents are included when data are analyzed by place of care. 

• Asthma Prevalence

  • Maine adults who are institutionalized, do not have a phone, or are unable to communicate are not represented. 
  • Statistical weights are used to calculate prevalence estimates in order to be more representative of the general adult population in Maine and to adjust for non-response, though weighting methods are not perfect in accomplishing this. In 2015, weighting methodology changed to include cell phone and landline respondents. Changes in prevalence estimates may be partially related to changes in weighting practices. 

Additional Details

• In order to protect privacy as per the Maine CDC Privacy Policy, data may have been suppressed. For locations where data must be suppressed a range (e.g. 1-5) is provided for the number of events and an asterisk (*) for the rate. Data may be secondarily suppressed to prevent indirect identification and displayed as not reported (NR). 
• Age-adjusted rates are considered unreliable and not reported (NR) when case counts are less than 25.
• Combined year population data are the sum of individual years (e.g., 2010-2014 is the sum of populations in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014). Combined year rates are annualized across all included years.