Asthma mortality in the UK and member nations between 2001 and 2011

Background Following the National Review of Asthma Deaths in the UK, we wanted to investigate the epidemiology of asthma deaths across the UK9s four member nations of over time. Methods Deaths with an underlying cause of asthma coded using ICD-10 codes J45 (asthma) and J46 (status asthmaticus) were obtained from death registers between 2001 and 2011. Age-standardised rates (ASR) were calculated using the European Standard Population, linear regression was used to find trend of mortality rate and t-test was used to find differences in mortality rates. Findings There were 13,749 asthma-related deaths in the UK between 2001 and 2011, of which 265 were children. In 2011, the mortality rates per 100,000 were 2.1 (95% CI 2.0–2.2; n=982) in England, 2.0 (1.6–2.3; n=94) in Scotland, 2.0 in Wales (1.5–2.5; n=58), 2.4 in Northern Ireland (1.6–3.2; n=33) and 2.1 (2.0–2.2; n=1,167) in UK. During the study period, the average mortality/100,000 and decline per year in the mortality rate respectively were: 2.4 and 0.1 (0.1–0.1) in England, 2.0 and 0.0 ( -0.1–0.1) in Scotland, 2.3 and 0.1 ( -0.1–-0.0) in Wales, 2.5 and 0.1 (-0.1–0.0) in Northern Ireland and 2.4 and 0.1 (0.1–0.1) in the UK. Mortality rates per 100,000 were significantly higher in females than males, with mean differences 1.3 (1.1–1.5) in England, 0.8 ( 0.5–1.1) in Scotland, 1.4 ( 1.0–1.8) in Wales, 1.2 ( 0.6–1.8) in Northern Ireland and 1.2 (1.0–1.4) in the UK. Interpretation Although many asthma deaths are preventable there are still about 1250 deaths per year in the UK. Since asthma mortality seems to have plateaued in Scotland and Northern Ireland, we need to understand how healthcare may differ across the UK nations in order to prevent more deaths.