There are 4,000 deaths due to asthma each year, many of which are avoidable with proper treatment and care.
The annual cost of asthma is estimated to be nearly $18 billion.
Hispanics may have an elevated risk for exposure to air pollution since a disproportionate number (80%) live in areas failing to meet one or more national standards for air pollutants.
Asthma is the #1 cause of children missing school accounting for more than 14 million total missed days of school.
African American women have the highest asthma mortality rate of all groups, more than 2.5 times higher than Caucasian women.
Asthma is more common among adult women than adult men, but it is more common among male children than female children.
More than 17 million people in the US have been diagnosed with asthma.
Asthma affects more than 4.8 million children, making it the most common serious chronic disease among children.
African Americans are three times more likely to both be hospitalized from asthma and die from asthma.
Asthma accounts for 25% of all emergency room visits in the U.S. each year, with two million emergency room visits.
Every day, thirty thousand Americans have an asthma attack.
Asthmatics with a near fatal episode have an increased likelihood of having a fatal attack in the future. This is why very close contact with your doctor is essential.
Most asthmatics who suffer a near fatal attack are severe asthmatics, mild or severe asthmatics who didn’t take their medicines as prescribed, delay in seeking treatment, and those who are taking large amounts of beta agonists regularly.
Fatal Asthma does not care how old you are, nor what sex, nor what color or race or creed.
Mild asthmatics can die of fatal asthma, but mostly due to improper care or delayed treatment.
There is no evidence that Albuterol increases the risk of a fatal asthma attack.
Use of Albuterol as the sole treatment may possibly contribute to fatal asthma, but probably due to lack of inhaled corticosteroids to manage chronic inflammation.
Boys are twice as likely to develop asthma than females, but the exact reason is unknown. Studies show boys are more likely to have a positive allergy test, to show more bronchial hyperresponsiveness and appear to have different patterns of airway function development.
Socioeconomic status and asthma fatality are inversely related. Or, poverty and asthma fatalities are linearly related.
African Americans have an increased incidence of asthma than whites. Socioeconomic status may be a factor, but recent studies show higher IgE serum levels and prevalence fo bronchial responsivemenss in blacks as compared with whites.