Epidemiology and utilization of primary health care services in Qatar by asthmatic children 5–12 years old: secondary data analysis 2016–2017

BACKGROUND: Childhood asthma is a growing clinical problem and a burden on the health care system due to repetitive visits to children’s emergency departments and frequent hospital admissions where it is poorly controlled. Due to lack of reliable baseline information on its prevalence among children in Qatar and the extent of their utilization of primary health care services, we sought to analyse electronic medical records data for children aged 5–12 years. OBJECTIVES: Our primary objective was to establish point prevalence over the period 2016–2017. Furthermore, we wanted to assess the frequency and pattern of use of the primary care services including any demographic and seasonal variations, the types of clinical encounter and treatment received. METHODS: A cross sectional study on 54,704 clinical encounters of electronic health records for children aged 5 to 12 years in which a diagnosis of Asthma was tagged during a two years period. RESULTS: The prevalence rate of Asthma out of total registered clients in the specified pediatric age group (196,557) is 6.1%. The rate was highest (10.2%) in youngest age group (5–6 years old) and lowest (4.1%) in teenagers (10–12 years old). An obvious peak of clinical encounters of Asthma cases was observed in Oct and Nov. The work load in PHCC clinics for Asthma clinical encounters is increased by more than 50% compared to the average monthly count of 4556.Moreover, the rate was higher in males (7.6%) compared to females (4.6%). The most frequently prescribed medication group was antihistamine (57.8%) followed by adrenergic bronchodilators (33.9%). CONCLUSIONS: Asthma constitutes an important part (8.5%) of the total primary care clinic work load among children aged 5–12 years in Qatar. A guideline need to encourage physician to use preventive Asthma strategies including steroid medications to provide continuity of care for Asthma cases.