Asthma Facts

In the United States, asthma is a leading chronic illness in children and youth.  Nearly 5 million school-aged children and youth reported currently having asthma and 3.1 million had had an asthma attack within the last 12 months in 2003.  Approximately 3 children out of thirty are likely to have asthma.

In Addition:

1. Asthma is one of the leading causes of absenteeism in schools.  In 2002, 14,7 million days were missed due to asthma.

2  Low income populations, minorities, and children living in inner city areas require more emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and deaths due to asthma that the general population.

3  Asthma can be controlled with proper diagnosis, appropriate care, and management activities.

4. It is the third ranking cause of hospitalization in children under 15.

5. Asthma Attacks or episodes, can be caused by "triggers" such as tobacco smoke, dust mites, furred and feathered animals, molds, chemicals and strong odors in the school environment.

6. 5.9% of school-aged children and youth had experienced an asthma episode or attack within the previous year in 2003.

7. The approximate cost of treating asthma in people under age 18 is $3.2 billion dollars annually.

Note: The Department of Health and Human Services' Healthy People 2010 lists asthma as a key health concern.  Eight objectives in the report concern asthma, encouraging the reduction of deaths, hospitalizations, and emergency room visits due to the disease; reduce the number of school and work days missed due to asthma; increase patient education on the disease; and request all states to implement asthma surveillance programs which will track the occupational and environmental causes of asthma, and access of asthma sufferers to medical care.