In 1988, there were 15 million visits to physicians for asthma. Thirty-five percent of these patients were under 20 years of age. Ten percent of Americans have asthma or frequent wheezing at some point in their lives. Those at greatest risk of death from asthma are persons older than 50 years of age and those younger than nine. Asthma is the most common cause of admissions to most children's hospitals.
Allergies are the sixth leading cause of chronic disease in the United States.
Forty-eight percent of children with asthma had to be taken to an emergency room to be treated for an asthma attack. One-half of asthmatics are female. Asthma complicates pregnancy one percent of the time. Blacks with asthma are about three times as likely to die of asthma as are whites. Twenty-eight million days of restricted activity, six million days of bed rest, 3.5 million days of work loss, two million lost school days, and 8.4 million office visits are experienced by hay fever sufferers.