One in 12 People Have Asthma and the Number is Growing

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Despite the fact that outdoor air quality has improved, we’ve reduced two common asthma triggers – secondhand smoke and smoking in general –– asthma is increasing.

Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) May 04, 2011

New CDC Vital Signs report shows asthma costs the United States $56 billion in medical costs, lost school and work days, and early deaths

Asthma is a lifelong disease that causes wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and coughing. It can limit a person’s quality of life. The number of people diagnosed with asthma grew by 4.3 million from 2001 to 2009. From 2001 through 2009 asthma rates rose the most among black children, almost a 50% increase. Asthma was linked to 3,447 deaths (about 9 per day) in 2007.

People with asthma can control symptoms and prevent asthma attacks by avoiding things that trigger asthma attacks, and correctly using prescribed medicine. The report highlights the benefits of essential asthma education and services that reduce the impact of these triggers, but most often these benefits are not covered by health insurers.

“Despite the fact that outdoor air quality has improved, we’ve reduced two common asthma triggers – secondhand smoke and smoking in general –– asthma is increasing,” said Paul Garbe, D.V.M., M.P.H, chief of CDC’s Air Pollution and Respiratory Health Branch. “While we don’t know the cause of the increase, our top priority is getting people to manage their symptoms better.”

Asthma triggers are usually environmental and can be found at school, work, home, outdoors, and elsewhere and can include tobacco smoke, mold, outdoor air pollution, and infections linked to influenza, cold-like symptoms, and other viruses.

Asthma diagnoses increased among all demographic groups between 2001 and 2009, though a higher percentage of more children reported having asthma than adults (9.6 percent compared to 7.7 percent in 2009), Diagnoses were especially high among boys (11.3 percent). The greatest rise in asthma rates was among black children (almost a 50 percent increase) from 2001 through 2009. Seventeen percent of non-Hispanic black children had asthma in 2009, the highest rate among racial/ethnic groups.

Annual asthma costs in the United States were $3,300 per person with asthma from 2002 to 2007 in medical expenses. About 2 in 5 uninsured and 1 in 9 insured people with asthma could not afford their prescription medication.

“Asthma is a serious, lifelong disease that unfortunately kills thousands of people each year and adds billions to our nation’s health care costs,” said CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “We have to do a better job educating people about managing their symptoms and how to correctly use medicines to control asthma so they can live longer more productive lives while saving health care costs.”

This report coincides with World Asthma Day, an annual event sponsored by the Global Initiative for Asthma. This year’s theme is “You Can Control Your Asthma.”

People with asthma and parents of children with asthma can

• Avoid asthma triggers at school, work, home, and outdoors. Parents of children with asthma should not smoke, or if they do, smoke only outdoors and not in their cars.
• Be empowered through education to manage their asthma and asthma attacks.
• Receive ongoing appropriate medical care.
• Use inhaled corticosteroids and other prescribed medicines correctly.

About Vital Signs
CDC Vital Signs is a report that appears on the first Tuesday of the month as part of the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report(MMWR). Vital Signs is designed to provide the latest data and information on key health indicators — cancer prevention, obesity, tobacco use, alcohol use, access to health care, HIV/AIDS, motor vehicle passenger safety, health care-associated infections, cardiovascular health, teen pregnancy, asthma, and food safety.

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