Abstract
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.
Highlights
It is well known that the prevalence of asthma has been reported to increase in many places around the world during the last decades
For asthma prevalence based on the Chinese diagnostic criteria, we found 10 articles with uncertainty about whether the reported childhood asthma prevalences expressed current or lifetime prevalences [39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48]
Lifetime prevalence of childhood asthma based on articles using the ISAAC written questionnaire varied from 1.1 to 11.0% with the lowest prevalence found among Tibetan children
Summary
It is well known that the prevalence of asthma has been reported to increase in many places around the world during the last decades. Further support for the western lifestyle hypothesis would be to show that the development of asthma prevalence follows the same pattern in societies going through a transition from a more traditional to a more modern lifestyle. Such understanding of how living conditions and ethnic background are related to the occurrence of asthma. The aim of the current review was to identify and assess studies that have reported asthma prevalence among children in China and search for time trends and regional variation with a special focus on studies among Tibetan children
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
