Childhood Asthma Is Usually Controllable—But Hospitalizations, and Disparities, Persist
Asthma affects millions of children in the U.S. and costs hundreds of millions of dollars annually in pediatric hospitalizations alone. The disease also accounts for millions of missed school days each year.
Asthma can be managed with effective monitoring, action plans, and treatment. When the disease is not controlled, it can result in debilitating, even life-threatening, symptoms. It is estimated that asthma is uncontrolled in half of U.S. children with the disease.
While asthma does not result in hospitalization for most young people, there were 7,251 hospital discharges for asthma among California children in 2024—a rate of 8.6 hospitalizations per 10,000. After recovering from 2020’s pandemic-era low (3.1 hospitalizations per 10,000) in 2022 (8.9 per 10,000), this rate has remained stable in consecutive years.
Asthma Hospitalization Rate per 10,000 California Children Ages 0 to 17, by Region: 2024
Across California and nationwide, rates of asthma prevalence and hospitalization vary by region, race/ethnicity—with African American/Black and Hispanic/Latino children disproportionately impacted—and age. Statewide, young children ages 0 to 4 generally experience higher rates of asthma hospitalization (14.5 hospitalizations per 10,000 in 2024) than older children ages 5 to 17 (6.4 per 10,000 in 2024).
At the local level, the county group consisting of Del Norte, Humboldt, and Mendocino recorded the lowest asthma hospitalization rate for children overall in 2024 (3.5 per 10,000) among locations areas with data. Kern County saw the lowest rate for young children (5.9 per 10,000), and Santa Barbara County saw the lowest rate for older children (2.9 per 10,000). The highest rate for each age group was recorded by San Diego County—overall, there were 13.4 hospitalizations for every 10,000 children ages 0 to 17 in the county in 2024.
Visit KidsData for more on the uneven burden of asthma across California communities and evidence-based program and policy options to address structural and environmental risk factors, improve asthma management, and reduce preventable hospitalizations.
Children’s Health Resources
California ranks 33rd among U.S. states in overall child well-being, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s latest KIDS COUNT Data Book. The state performed in the top 10 in the health domain (9th) and in the bottom 10 in the economic well-being domain (45th). California’s overall index score—532 on a scale of 0 to 1,000—remained stable relative to 2019.
Adolescents’ Substance Use, Psychological Distress, and Suicidal Thoughts and Attempts
A new policy brief and infographic by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research examine links between substance use and psychological distress and suicide risk among California youth ages 12 to 17. The researchers find that adolescents who use substances are almost twice as likely to report experiencing serious psychological distress in the previous year than their peers who do not use substances (46% vs. 27%).
Posted by kidsdata.org
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