ANDRÉ PICARD
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2009 10:37PM EDT
A person born today has a 40-per-cent risk of being diagnosed with asthma before turning 40, according to a new report.
The striking figure underscores that asthma is a serious public health problem that touches many, but researchers worry that it may actually undermine that message.
"My fear is that people will think that, because asthma is common, it's not a big deal," said Sharon Dell, a pediatric respirologist at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
"Asthma is not just an annoyance, it's a serious disease."
The 54-page report, The Burden of Asthma in Ontario, estimates the cumulative risk of developing asthma is 41.2 per cent by the age of 40. The risk is greatest in childhood - with almost 26 per cent of children being diagnosed before they turn 6. By 12, that risk drops to 20 per cent, then 16 per cent at 18, and down to 8 per cent at 30.
"If you make it past age 6 without an asthma diagnosis, your risk is much lower," said Andrea Gershon, a research fellow at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and co-author of the research.
The study examined health databases to determine how many people developed asthma from 1994 to 2002, based on diagnostic criteria.
The 40-per-cent figure includes people with mild, moderate and severe asthma, as well as those with intermittent and chronic symptoms.
But the research shows that, at any given time, about 9.5 per cent of the population is living with asthma. That translates to three million Canadians.
According to the report, the Canada-wide economic burden of asthma was $504-million in 1990, the most recent year for which data were available. Almost 400 Canadians a year die of asthma, most of them children.
Dr. Dell of the Hospital for Sick Children said the key for asthmatics is controlling the symptoms, which can be done with a combination of medication and with environmental modifications - determining what triggers asthma attacks and limiting exposure.
"Every asthmatic is different: They have different underlying factors, different triggers and different treatments," she said. "With a good management plan, everyone with asthma should live a normal lifestyle."
Asthma is the term used to describe inflammation of the airways, the tubes that carry air in and out of the lungs. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing and trouble breathing.
The exact causes of asthma are unknown, but include many things that irritate the lungs, such as exposure to pollutants and allergens.
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