State
of Childhood Asthma, United States: 1980-2005
For Immediate Release:
December 12,
2006
Contact: CDC
National Center for Health Statistics Press Office(301) 458-4800
E-mail: nchsquery@cdc.gov
The State of Childhood
Asthma, United States, 1980-2005.
Advance Data Number 381. 25 pp. (PHS) 2007-1250.
A new report on childhood
asthma released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) shows that death rates for asthma among children under age 18 have
declined since 1999, while doctor visits for the condition have more than
doubled over the past decade.
In 2005, nearly 9 percent
of children – 6.5 million children under age 18 – were reported to currently
have asthma. The percentage of children who had asthma more than doubled
between 1980 and 1995, from 3.6 percent to 7.5 percent. In 2001, CDC
introduced a more precise measurement of asthma and the 5 years since
then the trend has remained stable at historically high levels.
Other highlights:
After
increasing steadily between 1980 and 1998, asthma death rates among children
have for the most part declined since 1999. A change in the way causes of
death are coded resulted in a sizable 1-year decline between 1998 and
1999, but since then the asthma death rate for children has fallen from 3.0
deaths per 1,000,000 children under age 18 in 1999 to 2.5 deaths per 1,000,000
in 2004.
Asthma-related
visits to physician offices have increased sharply since the early 1990s,
from less than 40 visits per 1,000 children under age 18 in 1990 to 89
visits per 1,000 in 2004.
Among
race/ethnic groups, Puerto Rican and non-Hispanic black children were
reported to have the highest percentages of asthma (19.2 and 12.7
respectively).
According
to 2003 data, children with at least one asthma attack in the previous year
(nearly 4 million children) missed a cumulative total of 12.8 million school
days due to asthma.
Asthma-related
emergency department visits for children have remained fairly stable from
1992 to 2004 (103 visits per 10,000 children in 2004 compared with 97.6 visits
per 10,000 in 1992).
Among
the 37 states for which data were available, the states with the highest
percentage of children with asthma were: Massachusetts, Hawaii, Oklahoma,
Maryland, and Rhode Island. The states with the lowest percentage of
children with asthma were: Utah, California, Iowa, Tennessee, and
Washington.