Journal of Asthma and Allergy (Aug 2024)
Predicting Asthma Exacerbation Risk in the Adult South Korean Population Using Integrated Health Data and Machine Learning Models
Abstract
Joon Young Choi,1 Chin Kook Rhee2 1Department of Internal Medicine, Incheon St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea; 2Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of KoreaCorrespondence: Chin Kook Rhee, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, 222 Banpo-daero, Seocho-gu, Seoul, 06591, Republic of Korea, Tel +82 2 2258 6067, Fax +82 2 599 3589, Email [email protected]: Asthma is a chronic inflammatory airway disease with significant burden; exacerbations can severely affect quality of life and healthcare costs. Advances in big data analysis and artificial intelligence have made it easier to predict future exacerbations more accurately. This study used an integrated dataset of Korean National Health Insurance, meteorological, air pollution, and viral data from national public databases to develop a model to predict asthma exacerbations on a daily basis in South Korea. We merged these sources and applied random forest, AdaBoost, XGBoost, and LightGBM machine learning models to compare their performances at predicting future exacerbations. Of the models, XGBoost (AUROC of 0.68 and accuracy of 0.96) and LightGBM (AUROC of 0.67 and accuracy of 0.96) were the most promising. Common important variables were the number of visits and exacerbations per year, and medical resource utilization, including the prescription of asthma medications. Comorbid diabetes, hypertension, gastroesophageal reflux, arthritis, metabolic syndrome, osteoporosis, and ischemic heart disease were also associated with elevated exacerbation risk. The models examined in this study highlight the importance of previous exacerbations, use of medical resources, and comorbidities in the prediction of future exacerbations in patients with asthma.Keywords: asthma, machine learning, big data analysis, South Korea, XGBoost, LightGBM
