Asthma is a lung condition that causes difficulty breathing, and it's common among kids and teens. Symptoms include coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath. Anyone can have asthma, even infants, and the tendency to develop the condition is often inherited. Asthma affects the bronchial tubes, or airways. When someone breathes normally, air is taken in through the nose or mouth and then goes into the trachea (windpipe), passing through the bronchial tubes, into the lungs, and finally back out again. People with asthma have inflamed airways that produce lots of thick mucus. They're also overly sensitive, or hyperreactive, to certain things, like exercise, dust, or cigarette smoke. This hyperreactivity causes the smooth muscle that surrounds the airways to tighten up. The combination of airway inflammation and muscle tightening narrows the airways and makes it difficult for air to move through. (
http://kidshealth.org/parent/centers/asthma_center.html)
Satistics
Nationwide
1. Asthma affects 6.3 million children, under the age of 18, nation wide
2. 24 percent of children between the ages of 5 and 17 have some limited activity due to asthma
3. Asthma is the leading cause of missed school days among children ages 5 to 17
a) Asthma is the leading cause of school days missed because of a chronic illness
b) Annually, children miss about 15 million school days due to asthma.
c) Students with asthma may be at higher risk for poor performance
4. Asthma is the third-ranking cause of hospitalization for children under 15 years of age
a) Almost 44% of all asthma hospitalizations are for children
http://pediatricasthma.org/about/asthma_burdenC. Statewide and Milwaukee County
1. Across age categories, children under the age of five have the highest hospitalization rate (29.6 per 10,000 population, 2005) and hospital ED visit rate (93.7 per 10,000 population, 2005) in Wisconsin
2. Wisconsin children reached all-time high lifetime (12.9%) and current (8.5 percent) asthma prevalence values in 2005.
3. In 2003, nearly 48 percent of Wisconsin children with current asthma reported experiencing an asthma attack in the previous year.
4. Children aged 0-4 years had the highest asthma hospitalization rate at 29.9 per 10,000, from 2000-2005
(
http://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/eh/asthma/pdf/BOAWI_2007.PDF)
5. An estimated 30,000 children in Milwaukee County have asthma
a) 70 percent live in the center of Milwaukee
b) 2/3 of all pediatric asthma hospital admissions occur among children 5 years old or younger
c) Cost of asthma for children in Milwaukee – in medical expenses and missed work and school days – is an estimated $10 million annually(
http://pediatricasthma.org/community_coalitions/milwaukee
