Relationships between self-reported asthma utilization and patient characteristics

Background: Identifying asthmatic individuals most likely to utilize medical care in the future will help to direct intervention and medical resources; however, there are currently limited models for future utilization. Objective: This study investigated the relationship between patient characteristics and medical utilization, using an asthma disease management patient population. Methods: We analyzed a sample of 1412 adults, enrolled for 6 months in an asthma disease management program, for relationships with utilization. Individuals answered demographic, socioeconomic, and medical questions via telephonic contact upon enrollment. Follow-up regarding medical utilization occurred during the subsequent 6 months. Relationships between utilization and enrollment answers were statistically modeled. Results: Oral steroid bursts, day and night symptom frequencies, age, gender, education level, and employment status all had a significant relationship to medical utilization. Those individuals who had used oral steroids 6 months prior to enrollment, patients with more than five night-time asthma symptoms per month, and those with "continuous" day symptoms were more likely to report utilization. Those patients under 44 years old, females, those who were not high school graduates, and patients who defined themselves as unemployed because (of their asthma were also more likely to report utilization. While those unemployed because of asthma were already more likely to report utilization, individuals in the 45+ age category were more likely than those 18-44. Conclusions: Identifying asthma patients likely to utilize medical care is feasible, although more investigation is needed to demonstrate applicabilitly to a general asthma population.