Decline in asthma prevalence and severity in Israel over a 10-year period

The prevalence of asthma has increased in western countries towards the end of the last century, but recently seems to have stabilized.

To evaluate trends in the prevalence and severity of asthma that occurred in Israel over the past decade.

The medical records of 17-year-old boys, eligible for national service, between 1999 and 2008 were reviewed. National annual hospitalization and death rates for asthma were extracted.

Three hundred thousand medical records were reviewed. During the study period, lifetime asthma prevalence decreased from 9.7 to 8.1% (p = 0.002). The point prevalence of moderate-to-severe and mild persistent asthma decreased significantly from 0.88 and 3.41% to 0.36 and 2.44%, respectively, during this period. The prevalence of intermittent asthma and asthma in clinical remission for more than 3 years did not change significantly. The annual hospitalization rate for asthma decreased from 13.0 to 7.5 per 10,000 population (p < 0.0001), whilst the annual death rate due to asthma decreased between 1999 and 2008 from 2.1 to 1.4 per 100,000 population (p = 0.003).

The prevalence of asthma in Israeli teenage boys decreased significantly over the last decade. In addition, asthma hospitalization and asthma-related death rates in the total population also decreased.