Detroit asthma rates compared to state, national levels

The following tables and maps show the prevalence of asthma at both the state level for Michigan and for the City of Detroit. While Detroit is the main focus of this post, the charts that show asthma indicators and prevalence rates also provide insight on asthma data at the state and national levels.

The table above, Table 1 ,shows various asthma indicators for a study of children (under 18 years of age) enrolled in Michigan Medicaid programs in 2010.  The City of Detroit had higher numbers for every indicator listed above than those at the state level.

Data definitions are presented below:

Persistent Asthma:  The proportion of the study population who meet the definition of persistent asthma in 2010.

Emergency Department Rate:  The number of emergency department visits with a primary diagnosis of asthma per 10,000 children continuously enrolled in the Michigan Medicaid population in 2010. These data represent the number of visits for asthma, not the number of persons with a particular type of event.

Asthma Hospitalization Rate:  The number of in-patient hospitalizations with a primary discharge diagnosis of asthma per 10,000 children continuously enrolled in the Michigan Medicaid population in 2010. These data represent the number of hospitalizations for asthma, not the number of persons hospitalized.

Asthma Utilization Indicators among children with persistent asthma in Michigan Medicaid programs: Four indicators are presented to capture an element of asthma care or management among children who have asthma in this population.

  • Percent of Children with Persistent Asthma who had at least one Emergency Department Visit due to Asthma.
  • Percent of Children with Persistent Asthma who had two or more Emergency Department Visits due to Asthma.
  • Percent of Reliance on Emergency Department for outpatient care. (ED reliance is an indicator of outpatient utilization for asthma within an emergency department as opposed to in an outpatient setting)
  • Percent of children with persistent asthma who had at least one hospitalization due to asthma during 2010.

The above table, Table 2, shows the asthma prevalence rate at the country and state level for children in four different age groups in 2010. Except for the 10-14 years old age group, asthma prevalence rates in Michigan were higher than the national rates.

Data definitions are presented below:

Prevalence Rate:  The estimated proportion of the population with asthma in 2010.

Prevalence Number:  The estimated number of individuals in the population with asthma in 2010.

The above map shows persistent asthma prevalence rates for children (under 18 years of age) enrolled in Medicaid in 2010 for each zip code in the City of Detroit. The asthma prevalence rate for children in Medicaid in the City of Detroit in 2010 ranged from 4.6 percent to 7.9 percent. Five zip codes recorded the highest rates (6.71%-7.9%) among all 27 zip codes.  These five zip codes are: 48201, 48207, 48212, 48213, and 48216. As depicted in Table 1, the persistent asthma prevalence rate for children (under 18 years of age) enrolled in Medicaid in the entire City of Detroit in 2010 was 6 percent.

This map shows a combination of three indices of asthma burden in Detroit by zip code. The lower x-axis (1) shows persistent asthma prevalence rates for children (under 18 years of age) enrolled in Medicaid in Detroit in 2010. The y-axis (2) shows the number of in-patient hospitalizations with a primary diagnosis of asthma per 10,000 children (under 18 years of age) enrolled in Medicaid in Detroit in 2010. The upper x-axis (3) shows the number of emergency department visits with a primary diagnosis of asthma per 10,000 children (under 18 years of age) enrolled in Medicaid in Detroit in 2010. The map in the upper right corner shows the three zip codes with the highest rates of asthma prevalence, hospitalizations, and emergency department visits in Detroit in 2010. These three zip codes are  48201,48207, 48213; they are also three of the five listed as having the highest asthma prevalence rate in the City of Detroit in 2010.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *