Objective: The aim of this study was to know the prevalence of physician-diagnosed asthma and related epidemiological variable among children between 0 and 13 years of age in Asturias (Spain).
Patients and methods: A population based prevalence study was performed. A team of 44 researches evaluated the clinical records of children living in 24 different healthcare zones of Asturias. The total number of children included in the study was 27,511. Asthma during the infant period (0-23 months) and preschool age (2-5 years) was defined according to clinical criteria and asthma during school age (6-13 years) was established according to clinical criteria and pulmonary function. Prevalence of physician-diagnosed asthma following these criteria, sex and age-class distribution and the prevalence of current asthma (presenting symptoms during the previous 12 months) were studied. The study is dated as of January 1, 1998.
Results: The child sample included in this study represents 23.9% of the Asturian pediatric population. Asthma was diagnosed in a total of 3,170 children, of these 243 were infants, 915 preschoolers and 2,012 were of school age. Asthma prevalence calculated over the whole pediatric population was 11.5% with a breakdown by age groups of 7.6% for infants, 13.5% for preschoolers and 11.5% for school age children. Of all asthmatic children, 73.3% were symptomatic during the previous year. Males represented 61.5% of all asthmatic children.
Conclusions: 1. Asthma prevalence is high with this illness being the number one health problem in children in Asturias. 2. The highest percentage of children suffering from asthma experienced symptoms during the previous year. 3. A predominance of this disease in males was confirmed.