title: [Occurrence of asthma in schoolchildren. Is the disease underdiagnosed?].
abstract: A cross sectional study of 1064 unselected school children aged 6-17 years obtained the following for 851 of them (80%): complete data from a questionnaire on current asthma diagnosed by a physician, information on previous recurrent wheezing and present exposure to tobacco smoking combined with measurement of peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) before and after six minutes running. Seventy-five (8.8%) had had previous periods of recurrent wheezing, and 535 (62.7%) were exposed to tobacco smoking at home. A correlation was found between passive smoking and previous recurrent wheezing. Thirty-four (4.0%) suffered from current asthma. Thirty-one children (3.6%) without an earlier diagnosis of asthma showed a significant exercise-induced fall in PEFR) (at least 15%). Thirty of these 31 children were followed up, and at reinvestigation, 27 (95%) were confirmed to suffer from hyperreactive airways based on significant exercise-induced fall in PEFR and/or a significantly increased variability of PEFR of at least 15% as measured by home recordings of PEFR. In conclusion the point prevalence of asthma diagnosed by a physician was 4.0%. In addition at least 3.2% had reproducible significant bronchial hyperreactivity indicating a point prevalence of asthma/clinically significant bronchial hyperreactivity of at least 7.2%. Asthma seems to be underdiagnosed in school children. Furthermore, our results indicate an association between passive smoking and recurrent wheezing.
authors.affiliation: Skolelaegen, Nordborg Kommune, Sønderborg Sygehus, børneafdelingen.
authors.forename: A H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Høst
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Duus
authors.forename: T B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Ibsen
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Høst
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010366:Peak Expiratory Flow Rate; D015995:Prevalence
vernacular_title: Hyppighed af astma hos skolebørn. Er sygdommen underdiagnosticeret?