CDC and partners reinforce World Asthma Day’s message take control of your asthma
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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – People diagnosed with asthma in the United States grew by 4.3 million between 2001 and 2009, according to a new Vital Signs report released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2009, nearly
1 in 12 Americans were diagnosed with asthma. In addition to increased diagnoses, asthma costs grew from about $53 billion in 2002 to about $56 billion in 2007, about a 6 percent increase. The explanation for the growth in asthma rates is unknown.
Asthma is a lifelong disease that causes wheezing, breathlessness, chest
tightness, and coughing, though people with asthma can control symptoms
and prevent asthma attacks by avoiding things that can set off an asthma
attacks, and correctly using prescribed medicine, like inhaled
corticosteroids. The report highlights the benefits of essential asthma
education and services that reduce the impact of these triggers, but
most often these benefits are not covered by health insurers.
“Despite the fact that outdoor air quality has improved, we’ve reduced
two common asthma triggers – secondhand smoke and smoking in general —
asthma is increasing,” said Paul Garbe, D.V.M., M.P.H, chief of CDC’s
Air Pollution and Respiratory Health Branch. “While we don’t know the
cause of the increase, our top priority is getting people to manage
their symptoms better.”
Asthma triggers are usually environmental and can be found at school,
work, home, outdoors, and elsewhere and can include tobacco smoke, mold,
outdoor air pollution, and infections linked to influenza, cold-like
symptoms, and other viruses.
Asthma diagnoses increased among all demographic groups between 2001 and
2009, though a higher percentage of more children reported having asthma
than adults (9.6 percent compared to 7.7 percent in 2009), Diagnoses
were especially high among boys (11.3 percent). The greatest rise in
asthma rates was among black children (almost a 50 percent increase)
from 2001 through 2009. Seventeen percent of non-Hispanic black children
had asthma in 2009, the highest rate among racial/ethnic groups.
Annual asthma costs in the United States were $3,300 per person with
asthma from 2002 to 2007 in medical expenses. About 2 in 5 uninsured and
1 in 9 insured people with asthma could not afford their prescription
medication.
“Asthma is a serious, lifelong disease that unfortunately kills
thousands of people each year and adds billions to our nation’s health
care costs,” said CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “We have
to do a better job educating people about managing their symptoms and
how to correctly use medicines to control asthma so they can live longer
more productive lives while saving health care costs.”
This report coincides with World Asthma Day, an annual event sponsored
by the Global Initiative for Asthma. This year’s theme is “You Can
Control Your Asthma.” Reducing asthma attacks and the human and economic
costs of asthma are key priorities for the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services and the focus of a collaborative effort involving many
parts of HHS. In support of this effort CDC recommends:
* Improving indoor air quality for people with asthma through measures
such as smoke-free air laws and policies, healthy schools and
workplaces.
* Teach patients how to avoid asthma triggers such as tobacco smoke,
mold, pet dander, and outdoor air pollution,
* Encouraging clinicians to prescribe inhaled corticosteroids for all
patients with persistent asthma and to use a written asthma action plan
to teach patients how manage their symptoms.
* Promoting measures that prevent asthma attacks such as increasing
access to corticosteroids and other prescribed medicines.
* Encourage home environmental assessments and educational sessions
conducted by clinicians, health educators, and other health
professionals both within and outside of the clinical setting.
About Vital Signs
CDC Vital Signs is a report that appears on the first Tuesday of the
month as part of the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
(MMWR). Vital Signs is designed to provide the latest data and
information on key health indicators – cancer prevention, obesity,
tobacco use, alcohol use, access to health care, HIV/AIDS, motor vehicle
passenger safety, health care-associated infections, cardiovascular
health, teen pregnancy, asthma, and food safety.
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