Asthma is a chronic lung disease. It has been defined by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute as a common chronic disorder of the airways that is complex and characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, airflow obstruction, bronchial hyperresponsiveness (bronchospasm), and an underlying inflammation. The interaction of these features of asthma determines the clinical manifestations and severity of asthma and the response to treatment.http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/asthma/03_sec2_def.pdf Retrieved March 11, 2009
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Asthma is a chronic lung disease. It has been defined by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute as a common chronic disorder of the airways that is complex and characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, airflow obstruction, bronchial hyperresponsiveness (bronchospasm), and an underlying inflammation. The interaction of these features of asthma determines the clinical manifestations and severity of asthma and the response to treatment.http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/asthma/03_sec2_def.pdf Retrieved March 11, 2009
Public attention in the developed world has recently focused on asthma because of its rapidly increasing prevalence, affecting up to one in four urban children.
Epidemiology
Tracking the epidemiology of asthma is confounded by changes in how asthma has been described and defined over the decades. Most epidemiological studies use questionnaires, self-reports of asthma symptoms, and reports of physician diagnosis of asthma.Murray and Nadel's Textbook of Respiratory Medicine, 4th Ed. Robert J. Mason, John F. Murray, Jay A. Nadel, 2005, Elsevier pp. 334 This information may or may not be accompanied by objective pulmonary function data. All factors considered, even studies that maintain a constant definition of "asthma" throughout time show worldwide increases in asthma prevalence since the 1960s.
The International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC), a monumental study which involved 155 centers in 56 countries was one of the first to reliably compare the prevalence of asthma worldwide.The International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) Steering Committee. "Worldwide variation in prevalence of symptoms of asthma, allergic rhinoconjunctivitis, and atopic eczema." Lancet 1998; 351:1225-1232. Surveying nearly half a million children 13-14 years of age, this study found great disparities (as high as a 20 to 60-fold difference) in asthma prevalence across the world, with a trend toward more developed and westernized countries having higher asthma prevalence. Rote westernization however does not explain the entire difference in asthma prevalence between countries, and the disparities may also be affected by differences in genetic, social and environmental risk factors. There are also worldwide disparities in asthma mortality, which is most common in low to middle income countries. Asthma symptoms were most prevalent (as much as 20%) in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland; they were lowest (as low as 2–3%) in Eastern Europe, Indonesia, Greece, Uzbekistan, India, and Ethiopia.
Current research therefore suggests that the prevalence of childhood asthma has been increasing, and this increased prevalence is greater than that in adults. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Health Interview Surveys, some 9% of US children below 18 years of age had asthma in 2001, compared with just 3.6% in 1980 (see figure). The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that some 8% of the Swiss population suffers from asthma today, compared with just 2% some 25–30 years ago.
