Methods: Follow-up data from asthma patients who had been hospitalized due to severe exacerbation between 2007 and 2014 (Present) were compared with the previous one (1998~2006) (Previous).
Results: Age, sex, near-fatal attack, and mortality (9.8% vs. 9.6%) were not significantly different between the Previous (n=225) and Present (n=397) study. However, re-hospitalization rate was significantly lower in the Present than in the Previous study(52.4% vs. 29.3%; X2=28.0, p=0.000). The Present patients had better asthma knowledge (9.3±0.2 vs. 10.4±0.2, p=0.000) and used inhaled steroid more frequently (68.0% vs. 78.5%; X2=7.6, p=0.006). The fraction of regular hospital visitors to total subjects was significantly higher in the Present than in the Previous study (64.9% vs. 75.6%; X2=8.1, p=0.004). As the Previous study report, the regular hospital visitors (n=300) showed a significantly lower mortality (3.3% vs. 28.9%; X2=55.2, p=0.000), better knowledge (10.8±0.2 vs. 8.8±0.5, p=0.000) and higher inhaled steroid use (85.8% vs. 54.1%; X2=34.1, p=0.000) than the others (n=97) did in the Present study.
Conclusions: Clinical outcomes after recovery from severe asthma exacerbation in the present study were better than the previous one. Our efforts to educate patients might contribute to these better results.