The prevalence of childhood asthma in China: a systematic review

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Yangzong Yangzong¹  Per Nafstad²  Espen Bjertness³  Zumin Shi⁴  Lise Lund Håheim⁵  Ouzhu Luobu⁶ 

[1] Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, P.O.Box 11300318, Blindern, Oslo, Norway;Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, P.O.Box 11300318, Blindern, Oslo, Norway;Division of Epidemiology, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway;Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, P.O.Box 11300318, Blindern, Oslo, Norway;Tibet University Medical College, Tibet Autonomous Region, China;Jiangsu Provincial Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Nanjing, China;Discipline of Medicine, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia;Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Service, Oslo, Norway;Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway;Tibet University Medical College, Tibet Autonomous Region, China;

关键词: Asthma;    Children;    Prevalence;    Altitude;    Systematic review;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-12-860

 received in 2012-03-18, accepted in 2012-10-02,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundIt is well known that the prevalence of asthma has been reported to increase in many places around the world during the last decades. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify and review studies of asthma prevalence among children in China and address time trends and regional variation in asthma.MethodsA systematic literature search was performed using PubMed and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases. Selected articles had to describe an original study that showed the prevalence of asthma among children aged 0−14 years.ResultsA total of 74 articles met the inclusion criteria. The lifetime prevalence of asthma varied between 1.1% in Lhasa (Tibet) and 11.0% in Hong Kong in studies following the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) protocol. The prevalence was 3% or lower in most articles following Chinese diagnostic criteria. One article reported the results from two national surveys and showed that the current average prevalence of asthma for the total study population had increased from 1990 to 2000 (0.9% to 1.5%). The lowest current prevalence was found in Lhasa (0.1% in 1990, 0.5% in 2000).ConclusionsThe prevalence of childhood asthma was generally low, both in studies following the ISAAC and Chinese diagnostic criteria. Assessment of time trends and regional variations in asthma prevalence was difficult due to insufficient data, variation in diagnostic criteria, difference in data collection methods, and uncertainty in prevalence measures. However, the findings from one large study of children from 27 different cities support an increase in current prevalence of childhood asthma from 1990 to 2000. The lowest current prevalence of childhood asthma was found in Tibet.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Yangzong et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012