TORONTO - A new report says hospital admissions for health problems that could be managed or cared for in the community dropped by 22 per cent from 2001-02 to 2006-07.
The Canadian Institute For Health Information report says the rate of decline for these types of hospitalizations was about 50 per cent greater than the 14 per cent drop in all medical hospitalizations during that period.
The institute said that's good news, especially at a time when rates of chronic diseases are on the rise because of the aging population and higher rates of obesity.
The report looks at the number of hospital admissions for what are called ambulatory care sensitive conditions - things like asthma, diabetes and high blood pressure, which should not require hospital care if they are well managed.
It finds that some regions and socio-economic groups are doing a better job keeping down hospitalization rates in people with these conditions.
For instance, people living in poorer neighbourhoods were more than twice as likely to be hospitalized with one of these conditions than people in higher income neighbourhoods.
And the hospitalization rates were more than 60 per cent higher in rural areas - perhaps, the report suggests, because of a shortage of family doctors in rural parts of the country.
The analysis of the ambulatory care sensitive conditions was contained in the institute's annual report, which also revealed that hospital admissions for injuries continue to fall in most of the provinces and territories.
Those hospitalizations dropped eight per cent from 2001-02 to 2005-06, after numbers were adjusted for the growth in and aging of the population.
