Top Facts on Asthma

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^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Asthma Attack

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Asthma Facts

Statistics on Asthma

1. An estimated 262 million people worldwide suffer from asthma, with 455,000 deaths credited to the disease every year (2^✔ ✔Trusted Source
   Asthma
   
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2. The number of people with asthma could increase by more than 100 million by the year 2025 (3^✔ ✔Trusted Source
   Prevention of Asthma
   
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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^✔ ✔Trusted Source
   Asthma Facts and Figures
   
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Occupational Asthma

4. Occupational asthma due to unhealthy workplace conditions significantly contributes to the total number of asthma cases (5^✔ ✔Trusted Source
   Occupational and Work-Related Asthma
   
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Causes of Asthma

5. Common causes of asthma are indoor allergens, outdoor allergens, tobacco smoke, chemical irritants and air pollution. (6^✔ ✔Trusted Source
   Air Pollution
   
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Disease Frequency of Asthma

6. 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^✔ ✔Trusted Source
   Global, regional, and national prevalence of asthma in 2019: a systematic analysis and modelling study
   
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7. Most asthmatics also suffer from allergies.

Asthma by Age Group

8. Asthma occurs more in boys than girls in the 0-14 year age group in Australia .
9. Asthma occurs more in females than males in the 15 years and over age group in Australia (8^✔ ✔Trusted Source
   Asthma prevalence among children
   
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Medications for Asthma

10. Most effective medications for controlling asthma are anti-inflammatory drugs  like inhaled corticosteroid  and bronchodilators (9^✔ ✔Trusted Source
    Asthma medications: Know your options
    
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