California Asthma Hospitalizations by County and Demographics

Asthma hospitalization counts and rates per 10,000 residents for California statewide and by county. Data are stratified by age groups (all ages, 0-17, 18+, 0-4, 5-17, 18-64, 65+) and race/ethnicity categories (white, black, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, American Indian/Alaskan Native). The dataset is derived from patient discharge data from all licensed hospitals in California.

Use Cases

• Analyze asthma hospitalization rates per 10,000 residents across California counties to identify geographic disparities.
• Compare hospitalization rates across race/ethnicity categories (e.g., white, black, Hispanic) to study health inequities.
• Examine trends in asthma hospitalizations within specific age groups, such as 0-4 or 65+.
• Assess the impact of the ICD-9 to ICD-10 coding transition in 2015 on reported asthma hospitalization counts.

Strengths

• Data includes hospitalizations from all licensed hospitals in California, providing statewide coverage.
• Stratification by multiple age groups and race/ethnicity categories enables detailed demographic analysis.
• Rates are calculated per 10,000 residents, allowing for population-adjusted comparisons.

Limitations

• Rates are based on total hospitalizations, not unique individuals, which may overrepresent frequent hospital users.
• The 2015 transition from ICD-9-CM to ICD-10-CM coding breaks comparability between pre-2016 and post-2016 data.
• The dataset is limited to primary discharge diagnoses, potentially missing asthma-related hospitalizations with other primary codes.

Provenance

Source

State of California, Department of Health Care Access and Information Patient Discharge Data.

Collection Method

Derived from hospital discharge records based on primary diagnosis codes.

Freshness

Last updated in December 2025.

Geography

State of California, with data available statewide and by county.