Prevalence of asthma in regional Victorian schoolchildren

To determine whether the high prevalence of reported asthma in Melbourne schoolchildren is seen in rural Victoria.

A questionnaire on respiratory symptoms was distributed to children to be completed by parents and returned to the school. Results were compared with a previous Melbourne study.

Two hundred and twenty-seven government and non-government primary schools in five rural regions of Victoria: coast, wheatbelt, riverland, highland and Latrobe valley.

All children enrolled in grade 2 were invited to join the study. Parents completed questionnaires for 4661 children after 4886 questionnaires were distributed (response rate, 95%).

History of wheeze in the past 12 months.

The overall prevalence of wheeze in the last 12 months was 23.6%. There was a significant difference overall in this rate across the five rural areas and Melbourne, with the Latrobe Valley (26.2%) and highland areas (25.0%) having the highest rate, and the wheatbelt the lowest (19.6%). The spectrum of severity of asthma was similarly distributed across rural regions, although severe episodes were significantly more frequently reported by parents from rural areas than by parents in Melbourne. The reported use of bronchodilators and diagnosis of asthma showed a similar pattern of variation to that of the 12-month prevalence of wheeze.

The prevalence of asthma in 7-year-old children is similar for rural Victoria as a whole compared with Melbourne, but there is variability in asthma prevalence in individual rural areas which is difficult to account for in terms of known environmental precipitants.