Here's some more asthma statistics

The following was originally published 11/23/11 as "More and More Asthma Statistics."

If you're a nerd like me you love statistics.  Here's some statistics about breathing and asthma I've collected while researching various other asthma stuff:

• We breathe approximately 15 times per minute
• We breathe approximately 900 times per hour
• We breathe 21,600 times per day
• Every day 40,000 people miss school or work due to asthma.
• Every day 30,000 people have an asthma attack.
• Every day 5,000 people visit the emergency room due to asthma.
• Every day 1,000 people are admitted to the hospital due to asthma.
• Every day 11 people die from asthma.
• Out of 310,951,650 Americans, about 34.1 million have been diagnosed with asthma, and that comes to about 8% of the U.S. population
• Out of 6,904,510,920 people in the world, 300 million have been diagnosed with asthma, and that comes to about 4% of the world population.
• Of the 300 million asthmatics worldwide, 250,000 deaths will be attributed to the disease.  So it can be estimated that your chance of dying from asthma is approximately is 8.3%
• About 4,000 people die from asthma in the U.S. each year, which comes to about 1.17% (so asthma appears to be better controlled in the U.S. as compared to the rest of the world). 
• Asthma is also believed to be a contributing factor in 7,000 deaths each year.
• 75% of asthmatics develop symptoms before age 12, and fewer than 10% develop symptoms in adulthood
• 50-80% of children who have asthma develop symptoms before their 5th birthday
• 80% of adult asthmatics over 65 have persistent asthma and require preventative treatment
• 75% of Asthmatics have exercise induced asthma
• 75% of asthmatics have allergies
• 75% of asthmatics have GERD
• Asthmatics over 65 account for 65% (2,400) of the 4,000 deaths each year attributed to asthma
• 80-100% of asthmatics have rhinitis
• Women are 65% more likely to die of asthma than males
• 50% of people with rhinitis have asthma
• 45% develop asthma after the age of 65 (so you can develop asthma at any age)
• 44% of asthma hospitalizations are for children
• According to this study, children with food, drug or insect allergies are 52% more likely to have asthma exacerbations than children without allergies
• 50% of kids with eczema will develop asthma by the age of 12
• 29% of kids with a food allergy will develop asthma
• Children of families of higher incomes were 28% less likely to have asthma exacerbations compared to children from low income families, according to this study.
• 40% of children with asthmatic parents will develop asthma
• Obese Asthmatics have a 33% greater chance of needing health care services
• 25% of homes had dust mite levels significant enough to trigger an asthma attack
• Asthma accounts for 25% of all emergency room visits each year (about 2 million ER visits)
• Less than 25% of asthmatic children have their asthma under control
• 24% of asthmatics in the U.S. are children
• Adult females are 23% more likely to have asthma than men
• Yet for childhood asthma, boys are more likely to get it that girls
• Admission rates for women is 20-40% higher for adult women than men
• The asthma rate is about 20% higher in African Americans than Caucasians
• 19% of asthmatic children require an emergency room visit each year, and 35% of these children require oral corticosteroids.
• 4-15% of asthmatic kids require hospitalization each year
• 7-10% of children have asthma
• 3-5% of adults have asthma
• Asthmatics spend $6 billion on asthma prescriptions each year.  In fact, your humble RT contributes about $105 to that every month just on asthma prescriptions, and this comes to $1,260 per year.  So it costs a lot to keep asthma under control.  This might explain why asthma is more prevalent in poor communities.
• Asthmatics under 65 have a 13% chance of having a near fatal asthma attack, and those over 65 have a 39% chance of having a near fatal attack
• 10% of school aged children have asthma
• 5% of adults over age 60 have asthma
• 7-9% of adults over 70 have asthma
• Uncontrolled asthma contributes to 1.1 million days missed from work
• The total economic cost for asthma treatment is $19.7 billion annually.
• Kids miss 10.1 million days of school due to asthma, which might explain why kids with asthma tend to slack in reading skills.  So asthma is the leading cause of school absences.
• Approximately 500,000 asthmatics will be hospitalized each year, which comes to about 14% of all asthmatics in the U.S.
• Asthma results in approximately 10 million outpatient visits
• The average hospital length of stay is three days
• African Americans are 3 times more likely to require hospitalizations for asthma than Caucasians, with African American Women at the greatest risk

Unless otherwise linked to above, I used the following as references:

• American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI.org)
• Allergy and Asthma Foundation of America (aafa.org)
• Texas asthma slideshow presentation (texasasthma.org)
• HealthcareInformation.org

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