State agency surveys prevalence and impact of asthma

Children with asthma miss an average of 2.6 days of school per year due to their illness, according to a recently released survey by the California Department of Health Services on the prevalence and impact of asthma.

“The Burden of Asthma in California: A Surveillance Report” (June 2007) found that approximately 1.7 million children in California (13.3 percent) have been diagnosed with asthma at some point in their lives and some 827,000 children (8.6 percent) currently have asthma. Boys have higher rates of asthma girls. American Indians and African Americans have higher rates of lifetime asthma than other racial groups.

Of those children who currently have symptoms, 11.9 percent say they have symptoms at least weekly. Symptoms of asthma may include shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing and chest tightness, yet three-quarters of children with asthma say they never (39.4 percent) or rarely (35.9 percent) need to limit physical activity, and only 5.9 percent have limited activity most of the time or always.

Asthma can be triggered by health factors such as excessive weight or by a variety of environmental factors such as exposure to cats, dogs or tobacco smoke. There is no cure for the disease, but it can be controlled by restricting access to triggers, having regular access to medical care and using medication as directed. Most children with lifetime asthma are insured and have prescription drug benefits (94.5 percent and 93.1 percent, respectively). Over one-quarter (27.8 percent) of children with weekly or daily symptoms do not take daily asthma medications, although the survey does not distinguish between those who were and were not prescribed medication.

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The complete report is available at www.californiabreathing.org.