METHODS
Patients with asthma as a cause of their death were identified from: 1)
the Coroner’s office if asthma was listed on the Coroner’s report as an
Immediate Cause of Death or as a Condition Contributing to Death (since
2007 all pediatric asthma deaths are reported to the Coroner’s Service
with a post-mortem examination done if the cause of death is not clear)
or 2) the Discharge Abstract database at BC Children’s Hospital if they
had asthma listed as the most responsible or pre-admission diagnosis. BC
Children’s Hospital is the province’s only tertiary care pediatric
hospital and provides care for the critically ill children in the
province.
Patients were included if they died between January 2005 and December
2018, were residents of British Columbia, and were aged 0-18 years at
time of death. Data from coroner’s records which includes records from
primary care physicians and hospital charts were reviewed by a pediatric
respirologist (CY) to confirm that asthma was the underlying cause of
death and to obtain details of previous asthma care.
Administrative data on asthma-related hospitalizations, emergency room
visits and dispensed prescription medication was obtained from
de-identified national databases.
Informed consent was not obtained as the subjects were deceased however
all clinical information was de-identified and is presented in
aggregate. This study was approved by the UBC Research Ethics Board
(H16-01655).