The medical costs of uncontrolled asthma, combined with productivity losses due to sick days, could cost the U.S. economy more than $963 billion over the next 20 years, finds a new study led by researchers at the University of British Columbia.
In addition, Americans with uncontrolled asthma could lose more than 15 million years of health combined over the period, the analysis showed.
“Up to half of the estimated 15 million Americans with asthma aren’t successfully controlling their symptoms. Asthma imposes a significant burden on the economy and quality of life, but we have not previously known how much of its societal impact is due to lack of proper disease management, and therefore preventable,” said Mohsen Sadatsafavi, the study’s senior author and a professor of pharmaceutical sciences at UBC. “As far as we know, this is the first estimate of that avoidable burden.”
The authors analyzed population projections, prevalence of asthma and asthma control levels in teens and adults in all 50 U.S. states. They included data from the Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. National Health and Wellness Survey, and the Global Burden of Disease study.
Continue reading at University of British Columbia.
Image via Ted Barrera/Flickr.