Asthma is a noncommunicable airway disease in which inflammation and constriction cause difficulty to move air in and out of the lungs. Asthma is a global problem with more than 1000 people dying daily throughout the world due to complications of asthma. There are 500,000 hospitalizations each year due to uncontrolled asthma symptoms in the United States costing 56 billion dollars in 2007. Utah suffers from similar trends with hospital bills doubling between 2001 and 2010. Utah strives to improve outcomes through achieving goals set by Healthy People 2020 and by the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP).
