The Allergy Dude would like to highlight a report I recently read that summarizes the latest available data on the status of asthma in the U.S. from 2009. The source is the CDC, by Akinbami et al.
* In 2009, the prevalence for the entire U.S.with asthma is 8.2% (=24.6 million people). In 2001, the prevalence was 7.3%, with a increase of 12.3%. The prevalence for all adults (7.7), women (9.7%), and children (9.6%), other groups, and even men (5.5%) has increased since 2001. For example, in 2001 the prevalence for all children was 8.7%.
* In 2008, persons with asthma missed 10.5 million school days and 14.2 million work days due to their asthma.
* In 2007, there were 1.75 million asthma-related emergency department visits and 456,000 asthma hospitalizations. Asthma emergency visit and hospitalization rates were higher among females than males, among children than adults, and among black than white persons.