Wisconsin Asthma Statistics

• Lifetime asthma prevalence in Wisconsin adults reached its highest value of 13% in 2005.
• In WI, asthma is more prevalent among females, non-Hispanic African-Americans and low-income households.
• Weight is correlated with asthma prevalence, particularly among females. Overweight and obese females are almost twice as likely to have current asthma as non-overweight/obese females (14.8% vs. 8.1%).

Children

• Wisconsin children reached an all-time high lifetime asthma prevalence of about 13% in 2005.
• In WI, asthma is more prevalent among boys and non-Hispanic African-Americans students.

Asthma Management & Quality of Life

• Significantly more adults with self-reported current asthma perceive their health status as fair or poor compared to adults without asthma due, in part, to  difficulty sleeping or carrying out usual activity.
• Students with asthma miss more days of school than other students.

Health Care Utilization

• There were over 22,000 hospital emergency department visits for asthma in Wisconsin in 2005, costing over $17 million.
• There were over 5,500 hospitalizations in WI for asthma in 2005, costing an average of $8,251 per hospitalization. 
• Children, in particular those under the age of four, have the highest rates of asthma emergency department visits and asthma hospitalizations.
• Asthma hospitalization rates in Wisconsin are nearly six times higher in African Americans than whites.
• Forest (21.7), Milwaukee (20.9), and Menominee (20.9) Counties experienced the highest county-specific rates of asthma hospitalizations (PDF, 828 KB) per 10,000 population in Wisconsin from 2003-2005.
• The five counties with the highest rates of asthma ED visits (per 10,000 population) for 2003-2005 were Milwaukee (96.3), Menominee (73.4), Jackson (63.4), Clark (60.7) and Racine (49.0).
• Asthma hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits appear to vary seasonally, with the highest number of visits occurring in early spring and fall.

Mortality

• Between 2000 and 2005 asthma was the underlying cause of death in an average of 74 deaths per year in Wisconsin. Additionally, an average of 163 death certificates per year during this six-year period listed asthma as a contributing cause of death.
• There has been a general decline in asthma mortality in Wisconsin from 21.3 deaths per million in 1990 to 13.9 deaths per million in 2005.
• Asthma mortality rates are higher among African-Americans (2000-2005) and females (2002-2005).

Work-related Asthma

• Data from the BRFSS and Wisconsin Asthma Union Survey indicate that 5-14 percent of adults with asthma have work-related asthma.
  

For more detailed asthma statistics, please see the Burden of Asthma in Wisconsin 2007 (PDF, 6.8MB)
* Corrections for any errors found in the report since its publication can be seen in this errata sheet (PDF, 25.3KB).

Wisconsin Interactive Statistics on Health (WISH) gives you information about health indicators (measures of health) in Wisconsin.

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Date Last Revised:  October 31, 2008