Asthma and wheeze in schoolchildren

In a questionnaire survey of 2813 children aged 4 to 19 years 11.9% reported asthma compared to 4.4% in 1983-4: a rise of 170% over 9 years. The asthma prevalence was 8.35% in girls and 14.8% in boys. The prevalence of wheeze in the past 12 months was 12% in girls and 18.9% in boys. The wheeze prevalence values for 9 year olds were similar to those found in a recent study in Galway. 40.8% of those reporting wheeze in the previous 12 months did not report asthma. This suggests under diagnosis, ineffective communication of the diagnosis to the parents or denial of the diagnosis. 79% of those with asthma reported wheeze and 10.7% reported cough but no wheeze ('cough variant asthma'), emphasising the importance of cough as an indicator of asthma in these children.