Click on the icon below to explore asthma data:

Asthma is a chronic condition in which a person’s lungs become inflamed, narrow, and swell that make it difficult to breathe. Often asthma can be triggered due to allergens and irritants such as dust, pollen, and smoke. Asthma affects both children and adults. People with asthma may go for a while without symptoms, interrupted by a worsening of symptoms called an asthma attack. Asthma causes wheezing, loss of breath, chest tightness, and coughing. If asthma is severe enough it can cause missed days of work and school, as well as emergency department visits, hospital stays, and even death. We include data on asthma hospital stays and emergency department visits. This is useful in providing estimates about the population of Kansans that are affected by asthma and where they live.

Every year in Kansas, there are thousands of emergency department visits and hospitalizations from asthma. The number of asthma attacks that a person has can be reduced by avoiding exposure to known asthma triggers. Using asthma medicine as prescribed, avoiding common triggers, as well as having and following your written action plan can help to manage asthma. Air pollution, such as ozone and particle pollution, can make asthma symptoms worse and trigger attacks. Adults and children with asthma are more likely to have symptoms when ozone and particle pollution are in the air. Ozone is often found in smog and particle pollution is often found in haze, smoke and dust. Ozone is often worse on hot summer days, especially in the afternoons and early evenings. Particle pollution can be problematic at any time of year, even in winter.

Although the specific cause of asthma is unknown, well-known asthma triggers are:

• Allergens (such as pollen, mold, animal dander, and dust mites)
• Exercise
• Occupational hazards
• Tobacco smoke
• Air pollution (such as ozone and particle pollution)
• Airway infections
• Some foods and food additives
• Strong emotional states

Only about one in four adults with current asthma in Kansas have received an asthma management plan. Managing asthma is important action to take to reduce the burden of asthma. To successfully manage asthma, people with asthma and their household members benefit from receiving education about asthma treatment and how to control their environment to avoid asthma triggers.

The Tracking program uses hospitalization and emergency department data to track cases of asthma. Hospitalization for asthma is a result of varying factors including limited access to health care, uncontrolled asthma conditions, and potentially inadequate medical treatment services. Asthma hospitalizations may be an indicator of both the severity of the disease and barriers to regular asthma care (e.g., lack of health insurance). Tracking asthma hospitalizations can help in identifying populations vulnerable to asthma triggers and/or inadequate access to routine medical care. Problems associated with asthma, including hospitalization, are preventable through control of exposure to factors that trigger exacerbation, appropriate medication use, continual monitoring of the disease, and patient education in asthma care.

The Kansas Environmental Public Health Tracking Program uses hospitalization data to track asthma cases.

• Statewide Asthma Burden Document for 2019

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Asthma Information 

• American Lung Association Asthma Information

• American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology