Preventing Illness and Promoting Wellness for Communities in Eastern Connecticut

  • Andover
  • Ashford
  • Bolton
  • Chaplin
  • Columbia
  • Coventry
  • Mansfield
  • Scotland
  • Tolland
  • Willington

Asthma Facts

What is Asthma?-Learn about the basics of asthma such as signs/symptoms, common triggers, and much more at the CDC link and through the CT Department of Public Health.

Asthma is a lung disease. It can make your airways inflamed, swollen and sensitive. When something irritates your airways they become narrowed and inflamed. Asthma causes recurring periods of coughing, wheezing, chest tightness, shortness of breath, and coughing. The coughing often occurs at night or early in the morning.

According to the CDC, Connecticut was one of 21 states and territories with 10 percent or greater of adults with asthma in 2020 (See: Adult Asthma Data Across States). 

Asthma affects people of all ages, but it most often starts during childhood. In the United States, more than 25 million people are known to have asthma. About 7 million of these people are children.

Asthma is fairly prevalent in our community, and chances are good that asthma affects someone you know. The Connecticut Department of Public Health reports that:

  • In 2019, 71,900 (10.6%) children and 298,000 (10.5%) adults had asthma in Connecticut.
  • Asthma is the single most avoidable cause of hospitalization, yet it is consistently one of the most common admitting diagnoses in pediatrics.
  • In 2019, Connecticut incurred $105,620,169 acute care charges due to asthma as a primary diagnosis, down from 2014, when Connecticut incurred over $135 million acute care charges due to asthma as a primary diagnosis. 

The Connecticut Department of Public Health provides the following resources to help you manage you or your family member's asthma:  

What is Asthma? Learn about the basics of asthma such as signs/symptoms, common triggers, and much more

Asthma Action Plans: It is important to have an asthma action plan, this link provides a printable Asthma Action Plan (AAP)

Educational Materials: Resources to educate those with asthma, their parents, or caregivers

Healthcare Resources:  Learn how you can get insurance and which companies offer patient assistance programs to get medication

Healthy Homes:  Healthy Homes Initiative and other resources to learn how you can maintain a clean and healthy home

Schools: Programs and initiatives for schools, resources to managing asthma in school-aged children, asthma reporting forms, and links to additional resources

Statewide Asthma Partnership: ind links to resources about policies and advocacy organizations as well as read the statewide asthma plan