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Asthma Prevalence Among Children

Study examines recent trends

Publish date:: January 12, 2016

Childhood asthma prevalence increased from 2001 to 2009 before plateauing and then finally declining in 2013, according to a study of children aged 0 to 17 years in the 2001-2013 National Health Interview Survey. Study results indicated:

• No change in prevalence among non-Hispanic white and Puerto Rican children and those in the Northeast and West.

• Increasing prevalence among those aged 10 to 17 years, poor children, and those living in the South.

• Increasing then plateauing prevalence among those aged 5 to 9 years, near-poor children, and non-Hispanic black children.

• Increasing then decreasing prevalence among those aged 0 to 4 years, nonpoor, and Mexican children and those in the Midwest.

• Non-Hispanic black-white disparities stopped increasing, and Puerto Rican children remained with the highest prevalence.

Citation: Akinbami LJ, Simon AE, Rossen LM. Changing trends in asthma prevalence among children. [Published online ahead of print December 28, 2015]. Pediatrics. doi: 10.1542/peds.2015-2354.

Commentary: Approximately 8% of US children have asthma.¹ Asthma leads to significant morbidity with days lost from school, sports and exacerbations and emergency room visits. Intermittent disease can be treated with as needed albuterol, but persistant asthma requires the use of controller therapy, usually an inhaled steroid. Even on an inhaled steroid, among children with asthma, approximately 30% still have an exacerbation each year severe enough to require oral steroids. The strongest predictor for risk of exacerbations is a history of previous exacerbation. This has led to the recommendations in the current guidelines that the assessment of severity and control of asthma should include two domains: 1) degree of impairment which includes an evaluation of the frequency and intensity of symptoms, nocturnal awakenings, use of quick-relief medications, and level of lung function, and 2) likelihood of future asthma exacerbations. —Neil Skolnik, MD

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site. Asthma Data, Statistics, and Surveillance. http://www.cdc.gov/asthma/asthmadata.htm. Accessed January 11, 2016.

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