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What is asthma?
Asthma is a disease that affects your lungs. It causes repeated episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and nighttime or early morning coughing.
Asthma remains a significant burden on our state, our health care system, employers, and many Delawareans and their families. Because asthma is a chronic condition, it requires lifestyle changes for people living with asthma and their families. People with asthma usually adopt a self-management regimen with a physician's help. Utilizing the healthcare system, i.e., hospital inpatient and emergency room visits, is primarily part of asthma management.
Certain environmental factors can trigger asthma symptoms, like smoke. Reducing smoking in public places or at home can help reduce asthma episodes. Continued monitoring of air quality and attempts to reduce airborne irritants also can have a widespread impact on those with asthma and their families. Efforts to mitigate other known irritants, such as pet dander, dust mites, and some chemicals in homes and public places, can also reduce asthma's burden.
The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology estimates that asthma — including medical expenses, medication, lost work and school days, and costs of premature death — costs about $3,300 per person with asthma per year. Based on this estimate, the total cost of asthma in Delaware would be more than $200 million a year.
Asthma in New Castle County
This 2016 update reviews what has happened with asthma prevalence in the past decade, based on data from the Division and from the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.
National environment resources
National health resources
Citation: Delaware Department of Health and Social Services. https://myhealthycommunity.dhss.delaware.gov/
Citation: Delaware Health and Social Services. 2015-2022. Hospital Discharge Data.
Citation: Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, Division of Public Health, Delaware Health Statistics Center.
In releasing this information, Delaware aims to provide information that can be helpful to local communities as they work to improve public health. However, the protection of the confidentiality of our citizens is of paramount importance. To that end, counts of less than 11 are not presented. An outside expert has reviewed the platform to ensure it complies with the HIPAA privacy rule (45 CFR 164.§514(b)).
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Asthma in New Castle County
Here, we highlight one key statistic from each topic. Click a table row to see more detailed data for the statistic. Or click on a link under "Topic Page" to view a statistic's corresponding topic page.
Topic Page | Indicator | New Castle County | % Change | Trendline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asthma Emergency Department Visits | Asthma Emergency Dept. Visits Count (Entire Population) monthly number of population | 237 (December 2017) | Increased 30%(December 2016 to December 2017) | Data loading for chart... |
| Asthma Hospitalizations | Asthma Hospitalizations number of hospitalizations | 420 (2023) | Decreased 40%(2018 to 2023) | Data loading for chart... |
| Asthma Deaths | Asthma Deaths number of deaths | 34 (2016) | Increased 6%(2011 to 2016) | Data loading for chart... |
Values marked with
indicate there is insufficient data to respect the privacy of citizens.
