International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC): Prevalence of asthma and asthma-related symptoms among Brazilian schoolchildren

We have studied the prevalence of asthma and its symptoms using a standard written questionnaire (WQ) designed for the International Study of Asthma a nd Allergies in Children (ISAAC). The WQ (questions 1 through 8 related to asthma) was applied to 13,604 children aged 6-7 years from six Brazilian ci ties: Porto Alegre (South, N = 2,976), Curitiba (South, N = 1,664), Sao Pau lo (Southeast, N = 3,005), Uberlandia (Southeast, N = 3,002), Itabira. (Sou theast, N = 1,551) and Recife (Northeast, N = 1,406). At the age of 13 - 14 years the WQ was applied to 20,554 schoolchildren living in Porto Alegre ( South, N = 3,198), Curitiba (South, N = 3,008), Sao Paulo (Southeast, N = 3 ,008), Uberlandia (Southeast, N = 3,001), Itabira (Southeast, N = 2,134), S alvador (Northeast, N = 3,119) and Recife (Northeast, N = 3,086). The paren ts of the younger children answered the WQ, whereas the adolescents answere d the questionnaire themselves. The response rates were 72% and 93% for the 6-7-year-old children and for the 13-14-year-old children, respectively. T here was a slight predominance of male children in the population studied. In the group of 6-7-year-olds, the prevalence of physician diagnosed asthma was 7.3% for boys and 4.9% for girls: in the group of 13-14-year-olds the rates were 9.8% and 10.2%, respectively. Asthma severity was similar for bo th age groups, and wheezing following exercise was more frequent among the adolescents. In keeping with studies from other parts of the world, compari son between reported symptoms and diagnosed asthma revealed a significantly lower frequency of diagnosed asthma, suggesting that in the study populati on, asthma is underdiagnosed.