Table 2

Childhood ASH conditions by major cause categories

Causes	2008		2018
Causes	Frequency	%	Frequency	%
Asthma	3595	18.51	5087	23.05
Lower respiratory tract infections	899	4.63	1607	7.28
Cellulitis	1533	7.89	1513	6.86
Constipation	314	1.62	426	1.93
Dermatitis	488	2.51	446	2.02
Dental	2581	13.29	2744	12.43
Gastroenteritis	3646	18.78	3021	13.69
Gastro-oesophageal reflux diseases (GORD)	278	1.43	200	0.91
Nutrition	30	0.15	77	0.35
Rheumatic fever	2	0.01	2	0.01
Upper respiratory tract infection	3696	19.03	5162	23.39
Vaccine preventable diseases	32	0.16	37	0.17
Acute pneumonia	2324	11.97	1745	7.91
Total	19 418	100.00	22 067	100.00

The childhood ASH events are as per the hospitalisation register (not the merged population dataset used for further analysis); standard exclusion criteria applied, for example, only primary diagnosis, only acute conditions except for the dental conditions, aged 29 days to 4 years at admission, casemix events only, excluded unknown or overseas DHB domicile.
ASH, ambulatory sensitive hospitalisation; DHB, District Health Board.