Fig. 2

Hospital separation rate per 1000 population according to year of hospital separation, region of residence, and age differences. To obtain standardised separations rates per 1000 population for each year, hospital separations were divided by the corresponding population estimates for each year according region of residence and according to hospital separations among children (0–14 years of age) and adults (≥15 years). This is due to the marked differences in asthma exacerbation between these two groups. Data shows state-wide hospital separations rates for asthma between 2010 and 11 and 2014–15 remained relatively stable from 1.88 to 1.74 hospital separations per 1000 population between 2010 and 11 and 2014–15. While rural and metropolitan admissions among patients aged 15 years and older remained relatively unchanged over the same time. Data also shows among metropolitan groups aged 0–14 years there was a significant decrease from 8.59 to 7.86 hospital separations per 1000 population from 2010 to 11 to 2014–15, p = 0.001. While there was a decrease from 7.74 to 6.04 per 1000 population was observed in rural areas, p = 0.001. Overall, the hospital separation rates for asthma were consistently higher in metropolitan compared to rural Victoria over the five-year period, p = 0.001