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Distribution of severity of asthma in childhood

Silvia Magalhães Simões1, Sergio Souza Cunha, Maurício Lima Barreto

  • 1Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA), Salvador, BA, Brazil. silvia@alergia.org

Jornal De Pediatria
|October 13, 2010
PubMed

Insights

Most children with asthma in Salvador, Brazil, experience persistent asthma. This study compared epidemiological and clinical asthma severity classifications, finding good agreement between the two methods.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Pulmonology
  • Epidemiology
  • Public Health

Background:

  • Asthma is a significant public health concern in children.
  • Accurate classification of asthma severity is crucial for effective management.
  • Population-based data on asthma severity distribution is limited in many regions, including Brazil.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine the distribution of asthma severity among children in Salvador, Brazil.
  • To compare two different asthma severity classification systems: the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) and the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA).

Main Methods:

  • A population-based sample of 417 children aged 5-12 years in Salvador, Brazil, reporting asthma symptoms in the past 12 months was studied.
  • Two questionnaires, ISAAC (epidemiological) and GINA (clinical criteria), were administered simultaneously.
  • Children were categorized based on asthma severity using both instruments.

Main Results:

  • Ninety children showed symptoms of severe asthma according to the ISAAC questionnaire.
  • Using GINA criteria, the distribution was: 143 intermittent, 160 mild persistent, 51 moderate persistent, and 43 severe asthma.
  • The agreement between the ISAAC and GINA classifications was 81.3% (kappa = 0.5).

Conclusions:

  • The majority of children with asthma in the Salvador urban area exhibit persistent asthma.
  • The study demonstrated satisfactory agreement between epidemiological (ISAAC) and clinical (GINA) approaches to classifying childhood asthma severity.
Abstract

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