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The Impact of Asthma

After a decade of steady decline in the 1970s, the prevalence of asthma, hospitalizations for asthma, and death due to asthma each increased during the 1980s and 1990s. Asthma affects an estimated 17 million Americans or 6.4 percent of the U.S. population. Children account for 4.8 million of the nation's asthma sufferers. Asthma affects slightly more African Americans (5.8 percent) than Americans of European descent (5.1 percent). In 1993, however, blacks were 3 to 4 times more likely than whites to be hospitalized for asthma. In 1994, there were 451,000 asthma-related hospitalizations in the United States. Children accounted for 169,000 of these. In 1995, asthma caused more than 1.8 million emergency room visits.

Asthma claims approximately 5,000 lives annually in the United States. Asthma deaths have increased significantly during the past two decades. From 1975 to 1979, the death rate was 8.2 per 100,000 people. That rate jumped from 1993-1995 to 17.9 per 100,000. Particularly alarming, the death rate from asthma for children ages 5 to 14 doubled from 1980 to 1993. African Americans were 4 to 6 times more likely than whites to die from asthma. The increasing prevalence of asthma in inner-city children underscores the need for new therapies to prevent asthma and reduce its prevalence.

Poverty, substandard housing that increases exposure to certain indoor allergens, lack of education, inadequate access to health care, and the failure to take appropriate prescribed medications may all increase the risk of having a severe asthma attack or, more tragically, of dying from asthma.

Uncontrolled asthma can also impose serious limitations on daily life. Asthma is the leading cause of school absenteeism due to chronic illness and the second most important respiratory condition to cause home confinement for adults. Each year, asthma causes more than 18 million days of restricted activity, and millions of visits to physicians' offices and emergency rooms. One study found that children with asthma lose an extra 10 million school days each year; this problem is compounded by an estimated $1 billion in lost productivity for their working parents. Asthma-related health care costs our nation approximately $10.7 billion in 1994, including a direct health care cost of $6.1 billion. Indirect costs, such as lost work days, added up to $4.6 billion.

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