Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Asthma Call-back Survey show that 18.7 million US adults (8.2 percent) have asthma today out of approximately 29.1 million adults (12.7 percent) who have been diagnosed with asthma at some point in their lifetimes. The data are contained in a report called Asthma’s Impact on the Nation.
According to the CDC, “Asthma’s Impact on the Nation is the first release from CDC’s National Asthma Control Program to describe asthma prevalence, health care utilization, asthma management and education, and mortality trends for the program’s funded grantees in 34 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Comparing asthma prevalence by age, sex, race, and ethnicity, the CDC found socioeconomic and racial contrasts in asthma occurrence and management in children and adults.”
The report finds that the total societal cost of asthma in 2007 was $56 million; that asthma resulted in 3,388 deaths, 479,300 hospitalizations, and 1.9 million emergency department (ED) visits in 2009; and that 7 million US children had asthma in 2010.
“The information in this release is a stark reminder that asthma continues to be major public health concern with a large financial impact on families, the nation, and our health care system. A key component for adults and children is to create and follow an asthma action plan. Significantly, this analysis reveals that more than half of all children and more than two-thirds of all adults with asthma do not have an individualized action plan. CDC encourages those with asthma to work with their doctors to take control of this disease,” said CDC Director of the National Center for Environmental Health and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Christopher J. Portier.
Read the CDC press release.
Read the Asthma’s Impact on the Nation report.
