Asthma hits N.E. hard, study finds

The Boston Globe reports:

The asthma epidemic has tightened its chokehold on New England, with one in seven adults and children diagnosed with the respiratory disease and its telltale wheezes and coughs, according to a report being released today.


The government-funded study shows the disease takes a higher toll in New England than in the rest of the country.

And although the precise cause remains a mystery, here, as elsewhere, the burden of the condition weighs most heavily on the poor.

The study, based on telephone surveys, estimates that the number of adults and children in the six New England states who report ever having been diagnosed with the condition rose by 400,000 from 2001 to 2004.

A sad story that could influence more people to leave that area of the country.