This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (17)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

A Social or Medical Problem?

Michael A. Kaliner, MD

JAMA. 1993;269(15):1994-1995.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

First the numbers: about 4% to 5% of the population has asthma, meaning that there are about 10 million to 12 million cases. The number of people with asthma has increased by 60% in the past decade.¹ This increased incidence is not restricted to the United States, but is also occurring throughout the world.² Not only is there more asthma, but the disease is becoming more severe, as reflected in more hospitalizations and more deaths. During the time period 1983 through 1987, there was an average of 463 500 hospitalizations annually for asthma, of which nearly two thirds involved adults.³ This incidence represents at least a 145% increase from 1970, and again has been seen worldwide.² There were an estimated 1.8 million emergency department visits for asthma, as well. The total cost of treating asthmatic patients in the United States was estimated to be $6.42 billion . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Allergic Diseases Section, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to the Allergic Diseases Section, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bldg 10, Room 11C205, Bethesda, MD 20892 (Dr Kaliner).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?