Asthma, annual costs

Estimated annual excess cases of childhood illness and death attributable to parental smoking in the United States include low birth weight (46,000 cases, 2800 perinatal deaths), sudden infant death syndrome (2,000 deaths), RSV bronchiolitis (22,000 hospitalisations, 1,100 deaths), acute otitis media (3.4 million outpatient visits), otitis media with effusion (110,000 tympanostomies), asthma (1.8 million outpatient visits, 14 deaths), and fire-related injuries (10,000 outpatient visits, 590 hospitalisations, and 250 deaths). Parental smoking was found to be an important preventable cause of morbidity and mortality among American children it results in annual direct medical expenditures of USD 4.6 billion and loss of life costs of USD 8.2 billion [298(NC)]. 

The incidence of allergic asthma has steadily increased over the last decade. According to the Centers of Disease Control, nearly 20.3 million Americans suffered from asthma in 2001 12 million of them reported having asthma attacks. It is estimated that asthma costs the health-care system 13.8 billion annually. In addition, approximately 14 million school days are missed each year that are attributable to asthma-related complications. 

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