Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Oct 1:2018:6460379.
doi: 10.1155/2018/6460379. eCollection 2018.

Effects of Comorbidities on Asthma Hospitalization and Mortality Rates: A Systematic Review

Masoud Mahdavian  1 , Blake H Power  2 , Shabnam Asghari  2 , Jordan C Pike  3
Affiliations

Effects of Comorbidities on Asthma Hospitalization and Mortality Rates: A Systematic Review

Masoud Mahdavian et al. Can Respir J. .

Abstract

Background: Recent studies have shown that patients diagnosed with asthma who have other chronic comorbidities have severely worse medical outcomes. However, the number of available published studies in this field is lacking. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of comorbidities in asthmatic patients based on hospitalization and mortality rates.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted. Data were obtained from the electronic databases PubMed, CINAHL, and Cochrane until June 15, 2018. The primary objective of this study was to determine the effects of comorbidities on asthma hospitalization and mortality. The secondary objective was to analyze the effects of asthma comorbidity with certain chronic diseases, including COPD, obesity, obstructive sleep apnea, mental illness (anxiety and depression), diabetes mellitus, hypertension, myocardial ischemia, rhinitis, and sinusitis on asthma hospitalization and mortality.

Results: From potential 687 articles, only 9 were chosen based on our study inclusion criteria. Almost half of these articles were related to asthma/COPD comorbidity. There were no articles found for hypertension, myocardial ischemia, rhinitis, or sinusitis based on our inclusion/exclusion factors. Each of these 9 published articles had shown an increase in rates of hospitalization, length of stay, and/or mortality, due to asthma-related symptoms, compared to asthma-only patients.

Conclusion: There was determined to be a large discrepancy between the available research for various types of comorbid conditions presenting with asthma that focus on hospitalization and mortality rates. The current available literature suggests a large impact that these comorbid diseases can have on asthma-related symptoms when present together, severely affecting a patient's quality of life. We propose that further research on the effects of these comorbidities on asthma mortality and hospitalization can yield beneficial results to improve the management of asthmatic patients.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study flowchart of study selection process for use in literature systematic review.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. de Groot E. P., Duiverman E. J., Brand P. L. P. Comorbidities of asthma during childhood: possibly important, yet poorly studied. European Respiratory Journal. 2010;36(3):671–678. doi: 10.1183/09031936.00185709. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Gershon A. S., Wang C., Guan J., To T. Burden of comorbidity in individuals with asthma. Thorax. 2010;65(7):612–618. doi: 10.1136/thx.2009.131078. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Sumino K., O’Brian K., Bartle B., Au D. H., Castro M., Lee T. A. Coexisting chronic conditions associated with mortality and morbidity in adult patients with asthma. Journal of Asthma. 2014;51(3):306–314. doi: 10.3109/02770903.2013.879881. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Self T. H., Owens R. E., Mancell J., Nahata M. C. Asthma as a comorbidity in hospitalized patients: a potential missed opportunity to intervene. Annals of Pharmacotherapy. 2016;50(6):511–513. doi: 10.1177/1060028016641132. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Putcha N., Hansel N. N. All-cause mortality in asthma. the importance of age, comorbidity, and socioeconomic status. Annals of the American Thoracic Society. 2014;11(8):1252–1253. doi: 10.1513/annalsats.201408-392ed. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types