Four per cent of Cypriots say they have asthma

About four per cent of Cypriots said they were affected by asthma in 2019, below the EU average of 5.7 per cent, a report by Eurostat showed on Friday.

The EU average increased slightly in 2019, showing a 0.3 percentage points increase in relation to 2014, while Cyprus’ percentage of people with asthma saw a decrease of 0.3 percentage points during the same period.

Among EU countries, Finland stood on the top of the list, with nine per cent of the people reporting to have asthma, followed by Germany and France (both 8 per cent).

In contrast, only 2 per cent of people in both Romania and Bulgaria reported having it.

The most significant changes recorded between the five-year period were in Germany, which has 1.9 percentage points more than in 2014, Croatia with 1.8 percentage point increase, and Belgium with 1.5 percentage points.

On the other hand, Ireland saw a 1.7 percentage points decrease, Greece 1.1 percentage points and France 1 percentage point in the people reporting having asthma.

As in 2014, more women than men reported having asthma (6 per cent vs. 5 per cent) in 2019.

The highest share of reported asthma among both sexes and all age intervals was found in women 65 and above, standing at seven per cent.