Female Patients Hospitalized Twice as Often as Males.(for asthma flare ups)

2001 FEB 15 - (NewsRx.com) -- In a study examining 10 years of high-risk asthma admissions to the Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut, researchers found that high-risk female patients were admitted twice as often as males, stayed in the hospital almost a day longer, yet displayed lower levels of a blood marker of asthma severity.

David R. Trawick, MD, PhD, along with two colleagues, studied data on 103 high-risk patients, ages 18-50, who had been admitted at least twice to the hospital for asthma attacks over a 10-year period. They found:

* The 103 patients accounted for 382 admissions, of which 68.6% were for female patients.

* The average hospital stay for men was about four days and for women almost five days.

* There was one male and one female death among the study group.

* Slightly over 14% of the 382 admissions required care in the medical intensive care unit (MICU), and slightly over 7% were given mechanical ventilation.

* The proportion of men requiring intensive care and intubation was not significantly different from that of the female patients. Of the 55 patients who, during at least one of their visits, was admitted to the MICU, 28 required intubation and mechanical ventilation. The duration of intubation was slightly over 67 hours for the women and almost 51 hours for the men.