ISAAC SURVEY - GENERAL PRESENTATION OF TH E SURVEY

The general objective of ISAAC (Inter-national Study of Asthma and All ergies in Childhood) is to better know the distribution and risk facto rs of allergic diseases. The objective of phase I survey, which will b e dealt with in this special issue, is to get prevalence figures about asthma, rhinitis and eczema worldwide using a simple and validated qu estionnaire, In France, 18000 teenagers from the area of Bordeaux Fos l'Etang de Berre, Languedoc-Roussillon, West-Marne and Strasbourg and 8700 children fi om Bordeaux and Strasbourg participated to the survey in 1994 and 1995. In Fos l'Etang de Berre and Strasbourg areas, teena gers answered to a video-questionnaire about asthmatic symptoms follow ing the paper questionnaire. The paper questionnaire was translated fr om English and back-translated. Reproducibility of the paper questionn aire and comparison of answers provided by teenagers and their parents was studied in a small additionnal survey completed in a sample of 30 0 adolescents. Data analysis include first a descriptive analysis with in each center, then comparison of prevalence figures between centers.