Moderate-to-Severe Asthma May Be Underestimated

Published Online: Wednesday, January 1, 2003   [ Request Print ]

A recent telephone survey of more than 42,000 US households suggests that a majority of the population with asthma experiences moderate-to-severe persistent disease rather than mild illness. As reported in a recent issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, researchers analyzed data from 1788 people aged 16 and older who reported current asthma. Whereas previous studies suggested that most people with asthma have mild disease, 77.3% of the people in this study had moderate-to-severe persistent disease, and 10.7% had mild intermittent illness.