​​Pennsylvania Asthma Surveillance System

The Pennsylvania Asthma Surveillance System assesses the burden of asthma by systematically collecting asthma-related data from a number of data sources and analyzing that data to measure:

• The Prevalence of Asthma
• Indicators of Asthma Management and Control
• Hospitalizations Related to Asthma (Morbidity)
• Asthma-Related Deaths (Mortality) 

Main Asthma Data Sources of Pennsylvania Asthma Surveillance System

• Pennsylvania Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) measures asthma prevalence (both lifetime and current) by an annual sample telephone survey of Pennsylvania adults and collects information regarding age, gender, race, county, ethnicity, income, education, etc.   BRFFS is implemented by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and is conducted in all 50 states, 3 territories and the District of Columbia .
• Bureau of Health Statistics and Research provides asthma mortality data.  Data are available statewide by county, age group, race/ethnicity, and gender.
• Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4)  provides asthma discharge data, such as length of stay, hospital charges, payment source, admission type, etc.  Data are reported from annual reporting by Pennsylvania hospitals by patient home county code, sex, age and race/ethnicity.  
• Bureau of Community Health Systems provides the count of the total number of students with a medical diagnosis of asthma.
• Department of Public Welfare provides asthma prevalence data, inpatient asthma hospitalization discharge data, office visits and Emergency Room (ER) visits by sex, age, and county, cost ofmedical service and medications.
• Children's Health Insurance Program provides asthma ER data visits, and asthma hospitalization data by age, sex, and county.