What lies behind relief and worsening of asthma symptoms? A register-based study of adults with asthma and other chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases in Finland.

Aims: To examine how subjects with relief or worsening of asthma symptoms differ in terms of gender, age, severity and duration of asthma, comorbidity, and difficulties with medication and daily life.

Methods: A postal inquiry among a sample of 6000 adults with clinically diagnosed asthma and/or other chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases.

Results: Relief of asthma symptoms over a 12-month period was associated with a recent asthma diagnosis, within five years, in both sexes.

Comorbidity and medication load in adult asthmatics.

Objective: To examine comorbidity and the medication load among asthmatics. Design A self-administered postal inquiry.

Setting: A national register-based random sample of 6000 subjects aged 16 years or older entitled to special reimbursement for anti-asthmatic medication in Finland.

Achievements and shortcomings of Finnish asthma care.

Background: The Finnish National Asthma Programme was launched in 1994.

Aim: A postal self-completion questionnaire study was undertaken to evaluate how the guideline is working in the Finnish healthcare system.

Methods: A postal inquiry was sent to a random sample of 6,000 subjects aged 16+ years who were entitled to special reimbursement for anti-asthmatic medication and 4,657 subjects with self-reported asthma were included.

Length of stay and interval to readmission in emergency hospital treatment of COPD.

Background: increasing attention has recently been attached to the length of hospital stay and related factors in the treatment of COPD.

Objectives: to assess the trend in the duration of inpatient episodes following emergency admissions for COPD by age and sex, and the frequency of readmissions, as well as the correlations between the frequency and duration of inpatient episodes.

Design: retrospective study.

Regional and seasonal variation in the length of hospital stay for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Finland.

Notable regional and seasonal variation has been reported in the rate of hospital admissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPE). The aim of this study was to assess the variation in the length of hospital stay for COPD in Finland on the north south axis and by season. For this purpose, the patient records of subjects aged over 45 hospitalised altogether 153,401 times with COPD as their primary diagnosis during 1987 - 1998 were retrieved from the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register maintained by the National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health.