The epidemiology of asthma during pregnancy: prevalence, diagnosis, and symptoms.
We demonstrated that asthma remains a common condition among pregnant women and that the prevalence of self-reported asthma in the United States is between 8.4% and 8.8%. In addition, approximately 4.1% of all pregnant women experienced an asthma attack in the previous year. Prevalence rates in other countries seem to be higher or substantially lower; however, further characterization of international trends using nationally representative data is needed. Data from a large prospective cohort study in the northeastern United States and national data demonstrate continued opportunities for population-level improvement in well-managed asthma during pregnancy. Finally, asthma diagnosis and asthma control seem to differ by population characteristics (eg, age, race/ethnicity, socio-economic status), and further research and clinical involvement are needed to ad-dress potentially systematic variation in reporting and management of the disease.
Kwon
Helen L
HL
Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 722 West 168th Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10032, USA.
Triche
Elizabeth W
EW
Belanger
Kathleen
K
Bracken
Michael B
MB
D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications; D015995:Prevalence; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology