What is Asthma?
Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease in which airways narrow, swell and produce extra mucus. It makes breathing difficult, triggers coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath.
For some people, asthma is just a minor irritation of the airway, but for others, it can be a major problem and may lead to a life-threatening asthma attack. asthma cannot be cured, but its symptoms can be controlled (1✔).
Asthma Facts
Statistics on Asthma
- An estimated 262 million people worldwide suffer from asthma, with 455,000 deaths credited to the disease every year (2✔).
- The number of people with asthma could increase by more than 100 million by the year 2025 (3✔).
- An estimated 25.9 million people in the United States, including almost 7.1 million children, suffer from asthma. It is the third-ranking cause of hospitalisation among children under 15 in the United States (4✔).
Occupational Asthma
- Occupational asthma due to unhealthy workplace conditions significantly contributes to the total number of asthma cases (5✔).
Causes of Asthma
- Common causes of asthma are indoor allergens, outdoor allergens, tobacco smoke, chemical irritants and air pollution. (6✔)
Disease Frequency of Asthma
- The disease frequency of asthma varies widely in different countries, but the inconsistency is narrowing due to the increasing disease frequency in low and middle-income countries and plateauing of the disease in high-income countries (7✔).
- Most asthmatics also suffer from allergies.
Asthma by Age Group
- Asthma occurs more in boys than girls in the 0-14 year age group in Australia .
- Asthma occurs more in females than males in the 15 years and over age group in Australia (8✔).
Medications for Asthma
- Most effective medications for controlling asthma are anti-inflammatory drugs like inhaled corticosteroid and bronchodilators (9✔).
