What Is Bronchitis?
3. Epidemiology
The National Center for Health Statistics have estimated that about 4% of the population or 9.5 million individuals were diagnosed with chronic bronchitis in 2006. These numbers may be greatly underestimated as many patients underreport symptoms, causing their condition to remain undiagnosed.
While underreported by patients, it may be overdiagnosed by clinicians as the term bronchitis is commonly used to describe a nonspecific cough despite the patient not meeting the criteria for diagnosis. One study estimated that acute bronchitis affects 44 per 1,000 adults every year with 82% of episodes occurring in winter or fall. Acute bronchitis is one of the top 5 reasons where medical care is sought. Bronchitis has been observed to affect males more than females and in age groups below 5 years or over 50 years old.
Advertisement
