Asthma Demographics

This article talks about how asthma-related morbidity and mortality have risen sharply in the USA since the late 1970s. Hospitalization for asthma, a potentially avoidable outcome, is an important population-level marker of asthma severity. Several studies of adults were done and it was concluded that two demographic factors (low income and non-white race) were associated with a greater risk of hospitalization for asthma.

The hospitalization rate, another population-level marker of asthma severity, remains substantial, generating nearly one-half of all US health care costs for asthma, Hospitalization rates for asthma have actually increased in some demographic subgroups, such as young adults and the urban poor, despite recent therapeutic advances. The relationship between low income and asthma hospitalization has many potential explanations, including inadequate health care access. Low income persons in a population-based survey were approximately three times more likely to report difficulty paying for physician bills or prescription drugs than those persons with higher income

Reliance on the emergency department for urgent asthma care was also associated with a greater risk of subsequent hospitalization. Greater asthma severity, as indicated by recent asthma hospitalization and systemic corticosteroid use, was related to an increased likelihood of hospitalization.

http://respiratory-research.com/content/pdf/rr37.pdf