What Percent Of Americans Have Asthma

What Are The Costs Of Asthma To Society

More than $80 billion is spent in the United States each year on medical expenses related to asthma. The annual per person medical costs for asthma were $3,266.7

The number of doctors office visits due to asthma dropped between 2001 and 2016, from 409.7 visits per 10,000 population to 307.8 per 10,000 population. Rates of asthma-related emergency room visits did not change between 2001 and 2016. Rates of hospitalizations for asthma also declined by half during the same period.2

The number of children who missed one or more days of school decreased from 61.5 percent in 2003 to 49 percent in 2013. Missed school days did not change for age, gender, race, ethnicity or poverty level.6

Which Is The Most Challenging City To Live In With Asthma

Allentown is first on our list as the top Asthma Capital of 2021 due to its high rates of asthma-related emergency room visits. Risk factors affecting these asthma outcomes include a high estimate of people affected by pollen and few smoking laws. Our report looks at how challenging it is to live with asthma in the top 100 U.S. continental cities.

Unequal Access To Healthcare

Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Because good asthma care involves working out a plan with a doctor for using controller and emergency medications, reducing exposure to asthma triggers, and staying aware of how well your lungs are functioning, not having a doctor is an enormous problem that will likely affect people with this condition in a negative way, Gupta says.

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Why Do Males And Females Have Different Rates Of Asthma

• Male children are more likely to have asthma than female children. This trend reverses in adulthood, where female adults are more likely to have asthma than male adults.11
• Some studies suggest this trend reverses because of the effects of testosterone on lung cells. Testosterone, a male sex hormone, has been found to decrease the swelling of the airways in asthma.11

Medical Review February 2018, updated April 2022 by Sarah Goff, MD, PhD

References

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. . 2019 National Health Interview Survey Data. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

2. Ferrante, G., & La Grutta, S. . The Burden of Pediatric Asthma. Frontiers in Pediatrics, 6.

3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. . Asthma Data Visualizations.

4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. . AsthmaStats: Uncontrolled Asthma Among Children, 20122014. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

5. National Center for Health Statistics. . National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 2018 Summary Tables. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Impact Of Poor Asthma Management: Er Visits Hospitalizations And Deaths

• Asthma accounts for 4,261 deaths, approximately half a million hospitalizations, about 1.9 million emergency room visits and 12.7 million physician visits annually in the U.S. alone.
• Everyday in America 40,000 people miss school or work due to asthma, 30,000 people have an asthma attack, and 1,000 people are admitted to the hospital.

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Asthma Seriously Affects The Lives Of People In Massachusetts

• In Massachusetts, 73.7% of adults and 66.2% of children with current asthma were classified as having not well controlled or very poorly controlled asthma on average from 2006-2010.
• Among adults with very poorly controlled asthma, 40.7% reported cost was a barrier to care.

Figure 1 Level of Control among Massachusetts Children with Current Asthma, 2006-2010

Conflict Of Interest Statement

AC has received personal fees for consultancy from Regeneron/Sanofi, Philips and Boehringer Ingelheim consultancy and speaker fees from Novartis and speaker fees from Thermo Fisher Scientific. JP has received a travel grant from Boehringer Ingelheim. The remaining author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest

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Prevalence And Racial Disparity Of Asthma During Pregnancy

Previous estimates of asthma prevalence reported that between 4% and 7% of women suffer from asthma during their pregnancy however, many of these reports were from retrospective data, rather than being based on a nationally representative sample. Recently, Kwon and colleagues reviewed United States national health surveys spanning 1997 to 2001. The aim was to more definitively determine the prevalence of asthma in pregnant women ages 18 to 44. Time trends were also examined using health surveys from 1976 to 1980 and 1988 to 1994. They found that asthma affected between 3.7% and 8.4% of pregnant women in the United States between 1997 and 2001. There was a twofold increase in the prevalence of asthma between 19761980 and 19881994. This study supports initial prevalence estimates but also suggests that they may, in fact, be a conservative estimate. More importantly, this study supports the observation that this is a disease affecting more pregnant women each year.

Myth: Asthma Is Just In Your Head

Asthma symptoms have been linked to anxiety and depression, but asthma isnt a psychological condition.

Asthma is the result of chronic inflammation in the lungs, which results in swelling and narrowing of the airway. This inflammation can be caused by many different factors, including genetics and exposure to factors like allergens and pollution in your environment.

Common triggers for asthma and asthma attacks include:

• upper respiratory tract infections

Asthma is often thought of as a childhood disease that you outgrow as you get older.

Its true that asthma is common in children. In the United States, approximately 5.5 million people under age 18 have asthma.

Asthma attacks are also more common in kids. Almost 54 percent of children experience one or more asthma attacks per year, compared with 43 percent of adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .

But asthma usually doesnt truly go away. Though your symptoms may change or become less frequent over time, the condition remains.

Asthma may mean you have a genetic susceptibility to hyperreactivity in the lungs or damage to airway cells resulting from chronic inflammation.

Research from 2020 suggests that in children with severe asthma, the severity of disease may decrease over time.

Asthma can also develop in adults who never experienced symptoms as a child. Common triggers of adult-onset asthma include:

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The Economic Burden Of Asthma

Asthma is an extremely costly disease, costing the United States $81.9 billion annually 13

• 61% of these costs are medical 13
• 39% of costs are associated with absenteeism and mortality 13

The annual per-person medical costs for asthma are $3,266 annually 13. These costs break down as follows:

• $1,830 for medications 13

How Do Asthma And Asthma Outcomes Differ By Race/ethnicity

African Americans are more likely to have asthma than either Caucasians or Hispanics, but asthma has increased across all three ethnic groups. Females, black people, and Puerto Ricans are more likely to have asthma, as well. Among Hispanic individuals, Puerto Ricans are more likely to have asthma than Mexicans.2

Non-Hispanic blacks, both adults and male children, are more likely to die from asthma than other groups.

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Environmental Exposures Associated With Asthma In Children And Adults

Childhood asthma and adult onset asthma are known to share many of the same causes and triggers. While there is stronger evidence on the role of environmental factors as triggers than causes, there is increasing evidence for interactions among and between environmental and other intrinsic factors, such as genetics and atopy, to potentially cause asthma. The vast majority of childhood onset asthma manifests as an allergic phenotype, while there is a predominance of the non-allergic phenotype in adult onset asthma. However, both allergic and non-allergic asthma can exhibit individual responses to both allergic and non-allergic airborne triggers such as animal hair and dander, pollen, and mold spores, food allergens, tobacco smoke, or other pollutant exposures . Other than this table that provides key references to the main environmental exposures associated with asthma across the lifespan, the typical non-allergic, food and animal triggers of asthma are not described further in this chapter. Subsequent text has focused on the relationships between outdoor, indoor and workplace air pollutants and allergens and asthma, followed by a section on lifestyle factors such as obesity, diet, and breastfeeding.

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Whats The Risk In Taking Ibuprofen If You Have Asthma

If you have asthma, but arent aspirin-sensitive, you should be able to take ibuprofen as directed.

If you do have aspirin-sensitive asthma, ibuprofen can trigger symptoms of asthma or allergy. Symptoms of severe allergic reaction usually develop within a few hours after taking the drug. Some of them are:

• nasal congestion, runny nose

If youre ibuprofen-sensitive, its important to scrutinize medicine labels carefully. Avoid products that contain ibuprofen, aspirin, or any other NSAID.

Most people with asthma can safely take acetaminophen to treat fever or pain.

Certain asthma medications block leukotrienes. These include zafirlukast , montelukast , and zileuton . Ask your doctor if these medicines affect your ability to take ibuprofen. Your doctor can also guide you on the safest pain relievers, potential side effects, and what to do if you have an allergic reaction.

For frequent or chronic pain, your doctor may be able to provide alternate solutions based on the cause.

If youve had a bad reaction in the past and accidentally take ibuprofen, contact your doctor right away. Seek emergency medical care or call 911 if you have symptoms of severe allergic reaction such as:

• facial swelling

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What Are The Rates Of Asthma Attacks In Children

• In 2019, 44.3% of children age 18 and younger who had asthma reported having one or more asthma attacks in the past year.1
• About 47.2% of children under the age of 5 with asthma had an attack.1

Asthma And Overall Health

Asthma can easily reduce your quality of life if its not managed well. If you have poorly controlled asthma, youll also have decreased activity and sedentary lifestyle, which can lead to things that actually worsen asthma, like obesity, Dr. Youssef says. Additionally, asthma has the following impact on overall health:

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California Air Resources Board

Asthma is a chronic lung disease that continues to be a health concern in California, the United States and many other countries around the world. Asthma is a condition in which an individuals airways narrow, swell and produce extra mucus. This can make breathing difficult and trigger coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath. Children and certain racial groups, especially African Americans and Native Americans, have experienced relatively greater increases in asthma prevalence. Low income individuals also experience higher rates of asthma.

In 2014, 13.8% of adults reported that they had ever been diagnosed with asthma and 8.1% said they still have asthma . Among children under age 18, 13.7% had lifetime asthma and 9.4% had current asthma. This translates to approximately 4 million adults and 1.2 million children in California who have been diagnosed with asthma, and 2.3 million adults and 851,000 children in California who have current asthma. The prevalence has not changed signicantly since 2001, though increases have been shown in earlier decades.

There are a number of organizations that provide information on asthma management as well as conducting surveillance on asthma outcomes in California and nationwide. More Information

What Is Being Done What Needs To Be Done

For those children in poor or racial minority communities, where rates of asthma are higher and health outcomes more severe, better access to health care, better housing, and better nutrition, as well as healthier environments, are key strategies for minimizing the effects of the disease.

While the treatment of asthma has appropriately received increasing attention, few resources are dedicated to the prevention of asthma or to tracking the asthma epidemic. In 1999, just a small portion of the federal asthma research budget was spent on asthma etiology , prevention , or tracking .

Currently there is no federal tracking system or registry for asthma in the United States similar to the system that exists for childhood cancer. An asthma tracking system could tell us the incidence and prevalence of the disease, as well as linking these variables to environmental exposures. This information can be used to analyze trends, to help determine causes, to better understand the role of the environment, and to help develop effective prevention strategies.

Just as asthma has no single cause, there is no single solution to the asthma epidemic. Our efforts must address asthma on all fronts prevention as well as treatment. Only then will we see a decrease in the number of children ill and dying due to this modern epidemic.

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According To Allergy Statistics By State Pennsylvania And Virginia Are The Worst States For Allergies

Researchers ranked cities based on fall and spring pollen scores, as well as the number of used over-the-counter allergy medications and the availability of board-certified allergists. All factors included, Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Richmond, Virginia, were cited as the most challenging places to live in with seasonal allergies. On the other hand, the best states for allergies, or the least challenging ones, are Washington and North Carolina .

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Do Men Or Women Have Higher Rates Of Asthma

• Women are more likely to have asthma than men. 9.8 percent of women have asthma, compared to 6.1 percent of men.1
• Women are more likely to die from asthma than men.7
• Boys are more likely to have asthma than girls. 8.4 percent of boys have asthma, compared to 5.5 percent of girls.1

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. . 2019 National Health Interview Survey data. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Retrieved from:

Ferrante, G., & La Grutta, S. . The Burden of Pediatric Asthma. Frontiers in Pediatrics, 6.

Zahran, H., Bailey, C., Damon, S., Garbe, P. and Breysse, P. . Vital signs: Asthma in children United States, 20012016. .

National Center for Health Statistics. . National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey . U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved from:

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. . Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project . U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved from:

Asthma Research

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Most Recent National Asthma Data

These tables feature the latest national and state statistics on the burden of asthma among children and adults. The data are from national and state surveillance systems administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Links to sources are provided with each table to assist with finding additional information on the data and relevant tables and reports.

Abbreviations: NH = Non-Hispanic, SE = Standard Error1Persons who answered yes to the questions Have you EVER been told by a doctor or other health professional that you had asthma? and Do you still have asthma?2Numbers within selected characteristics may not sum to total due to rounding and missing values.3Persons who answered male or female to the question Are you male or female?4Poverty level is based on family income and family size using the U.S. Census Bureaus poverty thresholds. Poverty level was calculated separately using 10 imputed income files.Source: 2020 National Health Interview Survey Data .

Current Asthma1 Prevalence by Race and Ethnicity

NationalPrevalence of Asthma Attacks1 Among People With Current Asthma2 by Age

National

Asthma Mortality

School Children & Asthma

Asthma is one of the leading chronic illnesses of childhood and adolescence 12

• One in 10 school-aged children have asthma 12
• Over 13 million school days are missed annually due to asthma 15
• Children with asthma miss 2.3 days more of school than their peers with a per-child cost of $207
• Over half of school children with asthma missed as least one day of school in the previous year due asthma 13
• 5.5% of children with an asthma-related school absence were unable to see a primary care doctor due to cost 13

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Asthma And Allergic Asthma Statistics

Asthma is a chronic pulmonary condition in which the airways become blocked or narrowed when stimulated by allergens or other environmental triggers. Patients with asthma can experience difficulty breathing, wheezing, coughing and shortness of breath. The most common form of the condition is allergic asthma, which can be triggered by allergens such as dust mites, pet dander, mold and cockroaches. It is important that people with allergic asthma understand the role of an antibody called immunoglobulin E, or IgE, which is a key component of the allergic inflammatory cascade that may cause allergic asthma attacks and symptoms.