California children in some counties visited emergency rooms for asthma at much higher rates than the statewide annual rate in 2016, according to a California Healthline report.
In 2016, the annual statewide rate of ER visits for asthma per 10,000 children under age 18 was 75, data from the California Department of Public Health shows. That represents 69,375 ER visits for asthma that year.
But some counties had much higher rates: Merced and Madera's rates were 131 and 140, respectively. Fresno County had the highest rate in 2016, at 143.
All three counties are in the state's San Joaquin Valley, where, according to a California Health Interview Survey, one in four children have asthma.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency describes the San Joaquin Valley as having "some of the nation's worst air quality" due to the valley's topography, tThe area is surrounded by mountain ranges.
In addition to air pollution, wildfires such as the ones earlier this year can also make asthma worse in children, according to California Healthline. The 2016 rate of childhood ER visits for asthma in Del Norte County, close to the Oregon border, was 121. According to the report, fires are a likely contributing factor.
Read the full story, and see a graphic with California's rates by county, here.
More articles on patient flow:
Connecticut hospital closes hospice program
Ascension to shut down DC hospital Dec. 14
How this Cincinnati trauma center responded to city's worst mass shooting since 2013