Study finds asthma increasing among Indiana adults

MUNCIE, Ind. — Ball State University researchers say Indiana adults are suffering from asthma in record numbers and that Hispanics and blacks have the state’s highest adult rates of the chronic lung disease.

The report by Ball State’s Global Health Institute found nearly 14 percent of Indiana adults had been diagnosed with asthma last year. That’s up from a 11 percent rate a decade ago.

Institute director Kerry Anne McGeary says the increase is mysterious considering that smoking, the key trigger for asthma attacks, steadily decreased over the same period.

The report based on federal health survey data found 19 percent of Indiana’s Hispanics who are adults have asthma, as do about 18 percent of African-American adults, about 16 percent of Indiana women and about 11 percent of Hoosier men.