ASTHMA FACTS TODAY

General

  • It is estimated that 300 million people worldwide are affected by asthma1
  • In the United States, 20 million Americans - nine million of them children - have been diagnosed with asthma2
  • Asthma is one of the most common long-term diseases of children.3
  • Since 1980, the prevalence of asthma has increased by 75%.4
  • According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the causes of asthma are unclear and are likely to be very complex.5
  • Asthma accounts for more school absenteeism than any other chronic disease.6
  • Asthma accounts for many nights of interrupted sleep, limitations of activity and disruptions to the family and caregiver routines. Asthma symptoms that are not severe enough to require a visit to the emergency room or to a physician can still be severe enough to prevent a child or adult with asthma from living a fully active life.
  • According to the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, asthma is the leading work-related lung disease.
  • Throughout childhood boys have a higher prevalence of asthma, as well as higher death rates due to asthma, than girls.7

National

  • Though many cases of asthma probably go undiagnosed, health officials estimate that at least 20 million people in the U.S. have asthma, including 6.3 million children.8
  • Asthma costs (health care costs and lost productivity) totaled $14 billion in 2002.
  • Asthma leads to 2 million emergency room visits and 5,000 deaths per year in the U.S.

  • Nationally nearly 1 in 13 school-aged children have asthma, and the rate is rising more rapidly in preschool aged children than in any other age group.9

  • Approximately 4.2 million children had an asthma attack in the last year.

  • Asthma in children is the cause of almost 5 million physician visits and more than 200,000 hospitalizations per year.10

  • Asthma accounted for more than 14 million missed school days in 2000.

  • Asthma death rates were on the rise from 1980 until the mid-1990s but now appear to be on the decline.11

  • African American and Puerto Rican children have the highest prevalence of asthma.12 Asthma rates in African American children are 60% higher than in white children, and prevalence in Puerto Rican children is 140% higher than in non-Hispanic white children.13 Morbidity rates for black children is also more prevalent than for white children, with black children having a 260% higher emergency department visit rate, 250% higher hospitalization rate, and 500% higher death rate from asthma.14

  • The disparity in asthma mortality between black and white children is increasing.15

Missouri

  • Asthma is a major public health problem in Missouri with nearly 500,000 Missourians living with asthma.16
  • There are approximately 100 asthma-related deaths in Missouri each year.17
  • In Missouri, one in ten African American households has at least one child with asthma compared to one in fifteen white households.18

  • The rate of asthma-related emergency department visits by African Americans in Missouri is over four times higher than the rate for whites.19

  • In the State of Missouri, asthma-related hospitalization charges total over $50 million each year.20

  • Asthma costs Eastern Missouri more than $75 million a year in health care costs, medicine, and lost wages.

St. Louis Area

  • According to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, approximately 140,000 adults and more than 45,000 children in the St. Louis region are currently living with asthma.21
  • In the St. Louis area, 13.3% of adults over the age of 18 have been diagnosed with asthma.22

  • Overall, one out of every eleven children under the age of 18 are currently living with asthma in the St. Louis region23, but in some area schools, as many as one out of every five children has asthma.24
  • In 2005, residents of St. Louis City were seen in the emergency department 4,175 times for asthma and were hospitalized 2,548 days.25

  • In 2005, hospital charges for asthma in St. Louis City totaled more than $8.8 million.26

  • In 2003, African Americans made up 19.5% of the region's population, but accounted for 59.7% of asthma emergency department visits and 54.2% of asthma hospitalizations.27

References