Demographic and clinical data for children with and without escalation of asthma therapy*
| Total study population (n=14 029) | Escalation of therapy (n=1020) | No escalation of therapy (n=13 009) | P value | |
| Age in years, median (IQR) | 3 (1–5) | 3 (1–6) | 3 (1–5) | 0.09† |
| Male gender, n (%) | 8825 (62.9) | 635 (62.3) | 8190 (63.0) | 0.61‡ |
| Australasian Triage Category 1–2, n (%)§ | 4401 (31.4) | 690 (67.6) | 3711 (28.6) | <0.001‡ |
| Australasian Triage Category§ | ||||
| Category 1, n (%) | 91 (0.6) | 48 (4.7) | 43 (0.3) | |
| Category 2, n (%) | 4310 (30.7) | 642 (62.9) | 3668 (28.2) | |
| Category 3, n (%) | 7950 (56.7) | 317 (31.1) | 7633 (58.7) | |
| Category 4, n (%) | 1633 (11.6) | 13 (1.3) | 1620 (12.5) | |
| Category 5, n (%) | 37 (0.3) | 0 (0) | 37 (0.3) | |
| Hospital length of stay in hours, median (IQR) | 7.4 (3.7–19.6) | 44.2 (27.3–64.2) | 6.7 (3.5–16.3) | <0.001† |
| ED disposition, n (%) | ||||
| Home | 5028 (35.8) | 5 (0.5) | 5023 (38.6) | <0.001‡ |
| ED observation/short stay unit | 5234 (37.3) | 80 (7.8) | 5154 (39.6) | |
| Admission to ward | 3471 (24.7) | 725 (71.1) | 2746 (21.1) | |
| Admission to ICU in same hospital | 160 (1.1) | 156 (15.3) | 4 (0.03) | |
| Interhospital transfer | 78 (0.6) | 54 (5.3) | 24 (0.2) | |
| Left before treatment completed | 51 (0.4) | 0 (0) | 51 (0.4) | |
| Missing data | 7 (0.05) | 0 (0) | 7 (0.05) |
*Defined as any of intensive care admission, invasive or non-invasive respiratory support, or parenteral bronchodilator therapy.
†Mann-Whitney U test.
‡ χ2 test.
§Data missing for triage category for eight patients.
ED, emergency department; ICU, intensive care unit.