How prevalent is asthma among adults in the United States?
The National Center for Health Statistics (a division of the U.S. CDC) reported that 16.1 million American adults and 6.8 million children suffered from asthma in 2006. Reported cases of asthma have been on the rise since the early 1980s among people of all ages, sex and racial groups. Many people develop asthma in childhood, but others develop the disease later in life known as adult onset asthma. You can even first begin experiencing symptoms of the disease at age 50 or older.
