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).