Abstract

Nalan Metin Aksu*, Gül Karakaya, Bülent Sivri , Müge A. Günalp and Fuat Kalyoncu

The data about admission rates of asthma attack (AA) to emergency department (ED) is very limited and to the best of our knowledge this is the first study about the cost of AA referring to the ED in Turkey. Sixty-five adult patients (65 females) who presented to the ED of Hacettepe University School of Medicine with AA for six months of duration in winter and spring were included in this study. The means and standard deviations of numerical values were calculated. Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskall-Wallis test and chi-square tests were used for comparisions of grouped data. P<0.05 was accepted as statistically significant in all tests. The mean age of the patients was 54,9±14,4 and they presented most commonly in January (32.3%) while least in June (3.1%).Thirty two (49.2%) patients had moderate, 23 (35.4%) had mild and 10 (15.4%) had severe attacks. The mean cost of patients including examination, tests and drugs was 260 Turkish Lira ( TL) - US$ 169.3. As a result, the patients with AA seem to stay for a long time in ED with a cost which is high for our country, but lower compared to that of other countries.