Prevalence of asthma in 6,000 10-year-old children in Munich and Upper Bavaria based on physicians' diagnoses and a symptom score
Wjst, M.; Dold, S.
Gesundheitswesen 54(5): 223-228
1992
ISSN/ISBN: 0941-3790 PMID: 1623307 Document Number: 404966
In the Munich Survey on Asthma and Allergy the parents of 9,349 fourth-class schoolchildren (mean age 9.8 years) in Munich and Southern Bavaria were addressed by a questionnaire to which 8,204 responded (87%). In 7,192 children (76%) a skin prick test was performed and 7,284 (77%) had pulmonary function tests with maximum expiratory flow-volume loops before and after cold air challenge. Of the 6,083 children of German nationality, 160 children (2.6%) had physician-diagnosed asthma, 79 (1.3%) so called asthmoid bronchitis and 373 children (6.1%) spastic bronchitis. Since physician-diagnosed diseases does not reflect all children with respiratory disease, symptoms reported in the questionnaire, results of skin prick and pulmonary function tests were combined to a score of probable asthma (VSA) with 9 items. Of the group with physician-diagnosed asthma, 79.4% of the children (127) have an elevated VSA, of 68.4% (54) of asthmoid bronchitis, 35.9% (134) of spastic bronchitis, 11.4% (192) of simple bronchitis and 3% of (114) never-diagnosed bronchial disease. The cumulative prevalence of asthma in ten-year-old children is therefore estimated at 10.2%. Only half of these children have been diagnosed with asthmatic disease.