Asthma and Children

Asthma is a serious disease, causing wheezing, difficulty breathing, and coughing. Over a lifetime, it can cause permanent lung damage. About 16% of black children and 7% of white children have asthma. While we don't know what causes asthma, we know how to prevent asthma attacks or make them less severe. Today, children with asthma and their caregivers report fewer attacks, missed school days, and hospital visits.

More children with asthma are learning to control their asthma using an asthma action plan. Still, more than half of children with asthma had one or more attacks in 2016. Every year, 1 in 6 children with asthma visits the Emergency Department with about 1 in 20 children with asthma hospitalized for asthma.

Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers are:

· Teaching children and parents to manage asthma by using a personalized action plan shared with school staff and other caregivers. Such a plan helps children use medicine properly and avoid asthma triggers like tobacco smoke, pet dander, and air pollution.

· Working with community health workers, pharmacists, and others to ensure that children with asthma receive needed services.

· Working with children and parents to assess each child's asthma, prescribe appropriate medicines, and determine whether home health visits would help prevent attacks.

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To read more valuable information about Asthma and Children by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, visit https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/childhood-asthma/index.html.