Asthma and Asian Americans

Asian Americans generally have lower rates of asthma than the White population, but they had a 50% greater death rate in 2003.
Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders have a higher percentage of asthma than non-Hispanic Whites.
Chinese Americans also show a higher asthma rate than the White population.
Data on asthma conditions for Asian Americans is limited.

At a glance – Diagnosed:

**Percentage of asthma among persons 18 years of age and over, 2006**
Asian	Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander	Non-Hispanic White	Asian/ Non-Hispanic White Ratio	Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander/ Non-Hispanic White Ratio
8.6	18.0*	11.5	0.7	1.6

*Estimates have a high relative standard error and should be used with caution as they do not meet the standards of reliability set by the CDC

Source: CDC 2007. Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Adults: 2006. Table 4.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_235.pdf

**Percentage of adults 18 years of age and over with asthma, 2004-2006**
	Population	White	Population/ White Ratio
Total Asian	7.6	9.1	0.8
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander & other	10.4	9.1	1.1
Chinese	11.2	9.1	1.2
Filipino	5.3	9.1	0.6
Asian Indian	6.0	9.1	0.7
Japanese	6.8	9.1	0.7
Vietnamese	8.0	9.1	0.9
Korean	5.8	9.1	0.6

Source: : CDC 2008. Health characteristics of the Asian adult population: United States, 2004–2006. Table 4.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ad/ad394.pdf

**Percent of current asthma prevalence, 2005**
Asian	Non-Hispanic White	Asian/ Non-Hispanic White Ratio
4.9	7.6	0.6

Source: CDC 2006. Health E-Stats. Asthma Prevalence, Health Care Use and Mortality: United States, 2003-05. Figure 1.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hestats/ashtma03-05/asthma03-05.htm

**Percent of lifetime asthma diagnosis, 2005**
Asian	Non-Hispanic White	Asian/ Non-Hispanic White Ratio
8.4	11.3	0.7

Source: CDC 2006. Health E-Stats. Asthma Prevalence, Health Care Use and Mortality: United States, 2003-05. Figure 3.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hestats/ashtma03-05/asthma03-05.htm

At a glance – Death Rate:

**Number of asthma deaths per 100,000 population, 2003**
Asian	Non-Hispanic White	Asian/ Non-Hispanic White Ratio
1.7	1.1	1.5

Source: CDC 2006. Health E-Stats. Asthma Prevalence, Health Care Use and Mortality: United States, 2003-05. Figure 7.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hestats/ashtma03-05/asthma03-05.htm

At a Glance – Treatment:

The most recent National Surveillance for Asthma does not include data for Asian Americans.

Source: CDC 2007. National Surveillance for Asthma - United States, 1980-2004.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/ss/ss5608.pdf

At a Glance – Children:

**Age-adjusted percentages for children under 18 years of age, ever being told they had asthma, 2006**
Asian	Non-Hispanic White	Asian/ Non-Hispanic White Ratio
11.9	12.8	0.9

Source: CDC, 2007. Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Children: National Health Interview Survey, 2006. Table 1.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_234.pdf

**Asthma prevalence among children 0–17 years of age, 2003-2005**
Asian	Non-Hispanic White	Asian/ Non-Hispanic White Ratio
4.9	8.0	0.6

Source: CDC 2006. The State of Childhood Asthma, United States, 1980–2005. Table B.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ad/ad381.pdf

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Content Last Modified: 1/9/2009 10:55:00 AM