Increase in prevalence from 2001 to 2009, which plateaued then decreased in 2013
MONDAY, Dec. 28, 2015 (HealthDay News) — From 2001 to 2009 there was an increase in childhood asthma prevalence, which plateaued and then started to decline in 2013, according to a study published online Dec. 28 in Pediatrics.
Lara J. Akinbami, M.D., from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Hyattsville, Md., and colleagues used 2001 to 2013 National Health Interview Survey data from children aged 0 to 17 years to analyze current asthma prevalence.
The researchers found that from 2001 to 2009 there was an increase in childhood asthma prevalence, which plateaued and then declined in 2013. There was no change in prevalence among non-Hispanic white and Puerto Rican children and those in the Northeast and West from 2001 to 2013. Among 10- to 17-year-olds, poor children, and those living in the South, there was increasing prevalence from 2001 to 2013. Increasing then plateauing prevalence was seen for 5- to 9-year-olds, near-poor children, and non-Hispanic black children, while increasing then decreasing prevalence was seen for 0- to 4-year-olds, non-poor children, and Mexican children, and for those in the Midwest. The increase in non-Hispanic black-white disparities stopped, and the highest prevalence remained for Puerto Rican children.
“Current asthma prevalence ceased to increase among children in recent years and the non-Hispanic black-white disparity stopped increasing due mainly to plateauing prevalence among non-Hispanic black children,” the authors write.
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