In 2021, the prevalence of current asthma among Detroit adults was 46% higher than in Michigan as a whole and in 2019 the rate of asthma hospitalizations for Black residents in Detroit was more than three times the rate for White residents. 

Earlier this year, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) released a 2021 update on the current status of the asthma burden in Detroit to follow up on previous asthma data published in 2016. 

The report outlines health and hospital data in Detroit and the findings illustrate that the asthma burden in Detroit has increased disproportionately and was greater than the overall asthma burden in Michigan. 

Key findings from the report: 

•    The prevalence of current asthma among adults has increased and is 46% higher than in all of Michigan, compared to 29% in 2016. 

•    The prevalence of current asthma among children in Detroit is 14.6% and 8.4% in Michigan, in 2016 the rates were about the same.  

•    In 2019, the rate of asthma hospitalizations for Black residents in Detroit was more than three times the rate for White residents.

•    The rate of hospitalizations for asthma was at least four times greater for Detroit residents than for Michigan residents as a whole, from 2016 to 2019.

•    The rate of emergency department visits among children covered by Michigan Medicaid was twice as high in Detroit as the rate for the state as a whole.

•    Reliance on the emergency department for asthma care was over 50% higher for children enrolled in Medicaid with persistent asthma in Detroit as compared with their counterparts in the state as a whole from 2016 to 2019.

•    The rate of asthma mortality in Detroit in 2017-2019 was about three times the rate for Michigan as a whole.

The Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, a CMF member, has worked to reduce incidences of asthma in Detroit and Wayne County through improved ambient air quality.

The foundation supports efforts to develop new methods to measure, improve and monitor air quality and design effective policies and policy enforcement.

Erb Family Foundation recently shared an article on its social channel from Planet Detroit, underwritten in part by the foundation, that dives deeper into the research and the possible causes of the asthma burden.

According to MDHHS, public health efforts should continue to be directed to individuals with asthma in Detroit to improve asthma control and prevent severe outcomes.

Want more?

Read the full report.