Last Updated: February 27, 2019
Description
Asthma: Who is likely?
Images: UNC CEHS COEC
Big Idea: There are specific groups of people that are more likely to be diagnosed with asthma than others.
Talking Points:
- A person is 30% more likely to have asthma if one of their parents has already been diagnosed with asthma. The likelihood jumps to 70% if a person has two parents with asthma.
- Before puberty, boys are more likely than girls to have asthma. Nationally, nearly 10% of boys have asthma, while a little less that 7% of girls have it. The asthma rates are slightly higher in North Carolina, with over 11% of boys and 9.5% of girls reporting that they currently have asthma.
- The gender dynamic flips in adulthood, when new diagnoses and severity become more common among women than men. Researchers have suggested that hormones play a role in these outcomes. In North Carolina in 2016, 15% of adult women had asthma compared to 10% of adult men.
Sources:
American Thoracic Society, 2017
NCCSHS, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2016
NCCSHS, 2013-2014 CHAMP Survey
Zein and Erzurum, Asthma is Different in Women, 2015
Categories: Asthma