Epidemiology of Asthma in Adults of a community hospital. A cross-section study

Asthma is a chronic disease of worldwide prevalence. Having scarce data of asthma and severe asthma in adult population, a study was conducted in a sample set of patients enrolled in a private healthcare institution system in the City of Buenos Aires Argentina. Observational, retrospective, cross-sectional study of patients diagnosed according to GINA criteria. Prevalence was estimated with 95% confidence intervals for proportions where the entire set of active patients were used as denominator A total of 1.168 medical records were reviewed. 59% were female of 65 years old on average. Asthma prevalence was 5.6% (CI 4.5-7.0), and severe asthma was 0.2% (CI 0.05-0.74) of the total study population and 4.5% (CI 0.94-12-71) of the asthmatic population. 62% of the asthmatic patients were female and 100% of those with severe asthma were female as well. 42% of patients had mild persistent. 52% had not performed a spirometry in the last year. 11% of the population with asthma had history of smoking. 35% had eosinophil count greater than 300 cells/ ml in the last year. 30% of those with asthma required ERS visits and 3% required hospitalization. The prevalence of asthma and severe asthma observed is comparable to those of the developed countries. Gaps between the recommendations of the current guidelines, including management and phenotyping, were found in population studied.