Asthma Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Asthma - Essay Example According to a 2011 report, about 235 million people are affected by the disease worldwide and approximately 250,000 die every year due to asthma. About 80% of the mortality has been found to occur in lower and middle income nations with the rates varying between the countries. the prevalence rate has been found to be between 1 to 18% (Asthma, Wikipedia). In the year 2011 about 5.8 million Hispanic people in the USA were diagnosed with asthma with 3.6 million people still coping with the disease and about 1.7 million people experiencing an attack during the past year. The lifespan, current disease state and prevalence rate of asthma attack was found to be lower in significance compared to the non-Hispanic black and non-Hispanic white populations. Reports from 18 studies have shown that among the Hispanic sub-groups Puerto Ricans were found to have an increased incidence of the disease compared to other subgroups and non-Hispanic white people (Asthma: A Presentation of Asthma Management and Prevention). Reports reveal that between 2002 to 2007, the annual economic expenditure in the US due to asthma was estimated at $56.0 billion. Of these the direct costs to the healthcare was $50.1 billion and the other indirect entities including loss in productivity and other losses was estimated at $5.9 billion (ALA) The lung function test provides an accurate diagnosis of the disease, together with a medical history and physical examination of the patient. While lung function tests can be ably performed in adults it is however difficult to perform the test in children lesser than 5 years of age and hence in these cases doctors generally take in to account the medical history, signs, symptoms and physical examination of the child in order to diagnose the condition (How is Asthma Diagnosed?) In the case of children the