Asthma hospitalisations 2023-2024 (AIHW)

Asthma hospitalisations 2023 – 2024 (AIHW)
In 2023 – 2024, there were 31,994 hospitalisations with asthma as principal diagnosis.(ref 1)
This is very small increase compared to the previous year (31,107 hospitalisations in 2022-2023), a substantial increase compared to years affected by COVID-19 restrictions (e.g. about 25,500 in 2021-22) but remains below pre-pandemic level (about 37,000 in 2018-19).(ref 2)

Children under 15 accounted for 43% of all asthma hospitalisations.(ref 1)

In 2023-2024, 90% of asthma hospitalisations were potentially preventable.(ref1, 3)

*PPH: Potentially Preventable Hospitalisations (hospitalisations for asthma in people 4 years and over).

According to AIHW asthma webpage (ref 4), in 2023-24 there were:

• 32,000 hospitalisations with a principal diagnosis of asthma, representing 0.3% of all hospitalisations in Australia, and 119 hospitalisations per 100,000 population. Children 0-14 yo made up 43% of these hospitalisations (about 13,600 admissions)
• 65% of asthma hospitalisations were overnight stays, with an average length of 2.6 days
• the median age for asthma hospitalisations was 23
• When counting asthma hospitalisations as principal or additional diagnosis (any diagnosis), there were about 47,200 hospitalisations (0.4% of all hospitalisations)
• First Nations: 2,3000 hospitalisations due to asthma in First nations people, a rate of 220 per 100,000, which after adjustement for age, was 1.8 times higher than non-Indigenous Australians

Hospitalisation rates (ref 4):

• 119 per 100,000 (all ages, principal diagnosis)
• Highest among children aged 5-9 (around 405 per 100,000)
• boys aged 0–4, 5–9, and 10–14 had higher rates of hospitalisation than girls of the same age. For example, boys aged 0–4 were 1.8 times as likely as girls of the same age to be admitted to hospital