Asthma

Over 5 million people in the UK have asthma, 1.4 million of them are children aged under 16 years[i]

2.6 million people (2.1 million adults and 500,000 children) in the UK have severe asthma symptoms including debilitating breathlessness, attacks so bad they cannot speak, fear that they may die and emergency hospital admissions[ii]

8 million people in the UK have been diagnosed as having asthma at some point in their lives^{^[iii]}

In 2001, 55 in every 1,000 men and 45 in every 1,000 women had asthma in the UK^{^[iv]}

There are almost 4 million consultations and 74,000 hospital admissions for asthma each year in the UK[v]

There were 1,381 deaths from asthma in the UK in 2004 (40 were children aged 14 years or under). On average, 4 people per day or 1 person every 6 hours dies from asthma[vi] However the amount of deaths due to asthma has fallen from more than 2,000 in the 1980’s and it is estimated that approximately 90% of asthma deaths could have been prevented if the patient, carer or health care professional had acted differently

An estimated 492 cases of occupational asthma were seen for the first time by occupational and chest physicians who reported to the THOR (SWORD/OPRA) surveillance schemes in 2005, bringing the average annual incidence over the three years 2003-2005 to 571, or around 2 cases per 100,000 workers per year[vii]

The cost of Asthma

It is estimated that the total cost of the condition is in the region of £2,237 million. Lost productivity accounts for £1,226 million, with direct costs to the NHS of around £889 million and £161 million[viii]in benefits

Difficult to control asthma costs the NHS £680 million a year[ix]. Emergency hospital admissions for asthma cost the NHS more than £45.8 million a year[x]

Patients who experience asthma attacks present a particular challenge as their asthma is often more difficult to control, with those who require emergency care costing three times more than that of a patient with ‘stable’ asthma (£381 against £108 respectively[xii])

[i] National asthma campaign. Starting as we mean to go on. An audit of children’s asthma in the UK. Asthma J 8; May 2002: special supplement

[ii] Living on a knife edge (2004) Asthma UK

[iii] The Asthma Journal – Special Supplement Sept 2001, Vol 6 Issue 3

[iv] Office for National Statistics

[v] National Asthma Campaign Asthma Audit, Out in the open. A true picture of asthma in the UK today. Asthma J 6; September 2001: special supplement

[vi] http://www.asthma.org.uk/news_media/media_resources/for_1.html

[vii] http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/causdis/asthma.htm

[ix] Living on a knife edge (2004) Asthma UK

[x] Living on a knife edge (2004) Asthma UK

[xi] National Asthma Campaign Asthma Audit, Out in the open. A true picture of asthma in the UK today. Asthma J 6; September 2001: special supplement

[xii] Lung Report III (2003) British Lung Foundation