Asthma, allergies on the rise

by editor2
August 26th, 2006

A study involving 56 countries, including Australia, shows rates of asthma, eczema and hayfever generally increased between 1991 and 2003.

Researchers collected data from almost 500,000 children aged either six and seven or 13 and 14 to find out about their symptoms.

The findings of the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) were published in the latest issue of British-based medical journal The Lancet.

They show the younger age group was most vulnerable, showing increases in all three conditions.

Hayfever also increased in the older children.

Asthma symptoms were more likely to have decreased among the older children, who had previously been a high risk group for the disease.

The Australian data, taken from a group of Melbourne children in the younger age group, showed increases in eczema and hayfever and decreases in asthma.

Asia was worst hit by increases in all three conditions across both age groups.

Study leader, Professor Innes Asher from the University of Auckland in New Zealand, said there was a change in prevalence of one or more disorders over time in almost all countries.

“Although changes in mean annual prevalence to the order of 0.5 per cent might sound small, such changes could have substantial public health implications,” Prof Asher wrote.

Australian allergies expert, Dr Guy Marks from Sydney’s Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, said there was a profound increase in the prevalence of asthma among Australian children during the 1980s and the mid-1990s.

But the increase stopped in the late 1990s and first part of this decade, and may now even be decreasing.

“However, the reasons for both of these trends are not known,” Dr Marks told AAP.

“It’s a fascinating observation, but it’s frustrating (because) we really can’t say why.

“There’s been attempts to look at risk factors asthma and what might be causing it, but we can’t identify any specific factors.”

He said eczema and hayfever had not been well studied in Australia, but both conditions were believed to be on the rise.

While all three conditions were related to allergies, the differing trends seemed to prove that asthma was affected by non-allergy factors as well, Dr Marks said.

Source : http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20248496-661,00.html