Asthma and Asian Americans

Asian Americans generally have lower rates of asthma than the White population, but they had a 50% greater death rate in 2009.
Chinese Americans show a higher asthma rate than the White population.
Data on asthma conditions for Asian Americans is limited.

At a glance – Diagnosed:

**Percentage of asthma among persons 18 years of age and over, currently have asthma, 2010**
Asian	Non-Hispanic White	Asian/Non-Hispanic White Ratio
5.0	8.0	0.6

Source: CDC 2012. Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Adults: 2010. Table 4.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_252.pdf [PDF |3MB]

**Percentage of asthma among persons 18 years of age and over, ever being told they had asthma, 2010**
Asian	Non-Hispanic White	Asian/Non-Hispanic White Ratio
9.0	12.9	0.7

Source: CDC 2012. Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Adults: 2010. Table 4.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_252.pdf [PDF | 3MB]

**Percentage of adults 18 years of age and over with asthma, 2004-2006**
	Population	White	Population/ White Ratio
Total Asian	7.6	9.1	0.8
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander & other	10.4	9.1	1.1
Chinese	11.2	9.1	1.2
Filipino	5.3	9.1	0.6
Asian Indian	6.0	9.1	0.7
Japanese	6.8	9.1	0.7
Vietnamese	8.0	9.1	0.9
Korean	5.8	9.1	0.6

Source: : CDC 2008. Health characteristics of the Asian adult population: United States, 2004–2006. Table 4.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ad/ad394.pdf [PDF | 476KB]

**Hospital admissions rate for asthma, adults age 18 and over, United States, 2008**
Asian	Non-Hispanic White	Asian/Non-Hispanic White Ratio
68.3	100.1	0.7

Source: 2011 National Healthcare Quality Report. Table 8_3_2.3_2
http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/qrdr11/index.html

At a glance – Death Rate:

**Deaths per 100,000, with asthma as the underlying cause, National Vital Statistics System, 2009**
Asian	Non-Hispanic White	Asian/ Non-Hispanic White Ratio
1.2	0.8	1.5

Source: CDC 2012. Deaths: Final Data for 2009. Table 16 and Table 17.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr60/nvsr60_03.pdf [PDF | 2.2MB]

At a Glance – Treatment:

The most recent National Health Interview Survey does not include data for Asian Americans.

At a Glance – Children:

**Age-adjusted percentages for children under 18 years of age, ever being told they had asthma, 2010**
Asian	Non-Hispanic White	Asian/ Non-Hispanic White Ratio
13.0	12.1	1.1

Source: CDC, 2011. Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Children: National Health Interview Survey, 2010. Table 1.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_250.pdf [PDF | 714KB]

**Hospital admissions rate for asthma, children ages 2-17, United States, 2008**
Asian	Non-Hispanic White	Asian/ Non-Hispanic White Ratio
53.5	84.3	0.6

Source: 2011 National Healthcare Quality Report. Table 8_3_2.1_2
http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/qrdr11/index.html

**Age-adjusted percentages for children under 18 years of age, who currently have asthma, 2010**
Asian	Non-Hispanic White	Asian/ Non-Hispanic White Ratio
8.5	8.2	1.0

Source: CDC, 2011. Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Children: National Health Interview Survey, 2010. Table 1
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_250.pdf [PDF |714KB]

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Content Last Modified: 8/24/2012 9:40:00 AM

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