The Truth About Asthma

• Approximately 34.1 million Americans have been diagnosed with asthma by a health professional during their lifetime
• An estimated 300 million people worldwide suffer from asthma, with 250,000 annual deaths attributed to the disease
• Workplace conditions, such as exposure to fumes, gases or dust, are responsible for 11% of asthma cases worldwide
• About 70% of asthmatics also have allergies
• The prevalence of asthma increased 75% from 1980-1994
• Asthma rates in children under the age of five have increased more than 160% from 1980-1994
• It is estimated that the number of people with asthma will grow by more than 100 million by 2025
• As
  thma accounts for approximately 500,000 hospitalizations each year
• 13 million school days are missed each year due to asthma
• Asthma accounts for about 10.1 million missed work days for adults annually
• Asthma was responsible for 3,384 deaths in the United States in 2005
• The annual economic cost of asthma is $19.7 billion. Direct costs make up $14.7 billion of that total, and indirect costs such as lost productivity add another $5 billion
• Prescription drugs represented the largest single direct medical expenditure related to asthma, over $6 billion
• In 2006, asthma prevalence was 20.1% higher in African Americans than in whites
• The prevalence of asthma in adult females was 23% greater than the rate in males, in 2006
• Approximately 40% of children who have asthmatic parents will develop asthma
• In 2005, 8.9% of children in the United States currently had asthma
• Nine million U.S. children under 18 have been diagnosed with asthma at some point in their lifetime
• Nearly 4 million children have had an asthma attack in the previous year
• More than 12 million people in the United States report having an asthma attack in the past year
• Asthma accounts for 217,000 emergency room visits and 10.5 million physician office visits every year
• In 2006, almost 2.5 million people over the age of 65 had asthma, and more than 1 million had an asthma attack or episode
• In a survey of U.S. homes, approximately one-quarter had levels of dust mite allergens present in a bed at a level high enough to trigger asthma symptoms
• In 2007, 29% of children who had a food allergy also had asthma.
• Asthma increases the odds of healthcare use in obese people by 33%
• About 23 million people, including almost 7 million children, have asthma
• Approximately 2 million Hispanics in the U.S. have asthma
• Asthma is the third-ranking cause of hospitalization among children under 15
• An average of one out of every 10 school-aged child has asthma
• Annual expenditures for health and lost productivity due to asthma are estimated at over $20 billion, according to the