After years of constant antieg, the number of asthmatics in Berlin fell again for the first time in 2021, according to AOK Nordost, the local health insurance company responsible for Berlin, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg. In total, around 142,000 people in the capital had to be treated with a drug against attacks of shortness of breath and other symptoms of the lung disease – a year earlier there were almost 156,000 people affected. This emerges from a time series published by the Scientific Institute of the AOK (Wido).
According to Wido, the fact that the number of asthmatics in Berlin decreased in 2021 is probably due to the corona lockdowns. “These have not only curbed the spread of Covid-19 in Berlin, but also the spread of other infectious diseases such as respiratory infections.” Here the number of cases has fallen even more significantly: compared to the last year before the corona virus, 2019, around 36 percent fewer Berliners fell ill in 2021 from a cold, flu and Co. The absolute number fell from almost 317,000 to 203,000.
“Asthma diseases can occur as a result of infections in the lower respiratory tract,” says lung specialist Axel Brüning from the AOK Medical Center Center for Health in Berlin Mitte. “In this respect, it is plausible that the corona protection measures also had a positive effect on the number of asthmatics in Berlin in the short term.”
Asthma can occur as a result of lower respiratory tract infections.
Axel Brüning, lung specialist
However, this effect is unlikely to last: After most of the corona protection measures expired, the sickness rate in Berlin skyrocketed to a record level last winter, because respiratory infections in particular were spreading rapidly again, the AOK announced. As a result, asthma diseases will probably increase again. There are also other influencing factors on asthmatics, such as the growing number of allergies. The most important risk factors for asthma include allergic diseases, genetic predisposition, ear, nose and throat infections, obesity, tobacco smoke and air pollution.
Boys are significantly more likely to suffer from asthma than girls
Overall, around 3.86 percent of Berliners took prescription asthma medication in 2021, according to data analysis by Wido. This means that they developed asthma somewhat less frequently than the national average (3.98 percent). “The residents of Thuringia suffer most frequently from drug-treated asthma (4.55 percent), those in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania least frequently (3.25 percent).”
In childhood and adolescence, the frequency of asthma in Berlin boys is significantly higher than in girls: around 2.4 percent of boys up to the age of nine received asthma medication in 2021. Only 0.6 percent of girls were affected. “The fact that boys are more affected probably has anatomical reasons and can be explained by the narrower bronchi. This makes it easier for the airways to narrow, as is the case with bronchial asthma,” says pneumologist Axel Brüning.
With increasing age, the gender ratio is reversed: among 70 to 79-year-olds, 8.4 percent of Berlin women are affected, but only 4.7 percent of men. (tsp)
