Does your child have asthma? Filled prescriptions and household report of child asthma.
BACKGROUND
Surveys are central for information on asthma prevalence. Recently, the validity of parental reports of pediatric asthma has been questioned. Confidence is examined in the report of asthma for children, obtained in a survey from the adult household member most knowledgeable about household health care (MKA).


METHODS
MKA reports of asthma are compared with pharmacy records of prescriptions beneficial in asthma treatment ("asthma medications") for children 0 to 17 years old in the 1996 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey.


RESULTS
"Asthma medications" were filled for 6.5% of children, yet the MKA did not report asthma for 47.3% of them. However, for 61.2% of these children, the MKA reported plausible alternative medical conditions. For 9.0%, diagnosis information was missing. Among children with an "asthma medication," the MKA was less likely to report either asthma or a plausible alternative diagnosis for girls and for children 0 to 5 years of age. Reporting was not statistically different by child race/ethnicity, household income, education level, and MKA English language proficiency.


CONCLUSIONS
Surveys do not overlook as many children with asthma as previously reported. Among children with "asthma medications," only sex and age appear to be different for children whose MKA reported either asthma or a plausible alternative diagnosis versus those whose MKA did not report either.
Joesch
Jutta M
JM
Battelle Centers for Public Health Research & Evaluation, Seattle, Washington 98109-3598, USA. joesch@battelle.org
Kim
Hyoshin
H
Kieckhefer
Gail M
GM
Greek
April A
AA
Baydar
Nazli
N
D000293:Adolescent; D017677:Age Distribution; D018927:Anti-Asthmatic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D015995:Prevalence; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
D018927:Anti-Asthmatic Agents