Asthma Key Messages (PDF)
· Over two million Australians have asthma.
a) One in nine children
b) One in ten adults
· In recent years the prevalence of asthma has decreased among children and young adults.
· Indigenous Australians have more problems with asthma than other Australians
a) 1 ½ times as likely to have current asthma
b) Twice as likely to have hospital visits for asthma
c) 3 times as likely to die from asthma
· People with asthma should have a written asthma action plan but most still don’t.
· People with asthma are at least as likely to smoke as others are.
· One in nine children with asthma are exposed to tobacco smoke in their home.
· 447 people died due to asthma in 2008, one in four of them aged under 65 years.
· There has been a general pattern of decline in deaths due to asthma since the early 1990s.
· In 2004-05, $606 million (1.2% of total health-care expenditure) was spent on asthma, over half of it on medication.