PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Eleonora P. Uphoff
AU  - Philippa K. Bird
AU  - Joseph Maria Antó
AU  - Mikel Basterrechea
AU  - Andrea von Berg
AU  - Anna Bergström
AU  - Jean Bousquet
AU  - Leda Chatzi
AU  - Maria Pia Fantini
AU  - Amparo Ferrero
AU  - Ulrike Gehring
AU  - Davide Gori
AU  - Joachim Heinrich
AU  - Thomas Keil
AU  - Inger Kull
AU  - Susanne Lau
AU  - Dieter Maier
AU  - Isabelle Momas
AU  - Silvia Narduzzi
AU  - Daniela Porta
AU  - Fanny Ranciere
AU  - Theano Roumeliotaki
AU  - Tamara Schikowski
AU  - Henriette A. Smit
AU  - Marie Standl
AU  - Jordi Sunyer
AU  - John Wright
TI  - Variations in the prevalence of childhood asthma and wheeze in MeDALL cohorts in Europe
AID  - 10.1183/23120541.00150-2016
DP  - 2017 Jul 01
TA  - ERJ Open Research
PG  - 00150-2016
VI  - 3
IP  - 3
4099  - http://openres.ersjournals.com/content/3/3/00150-2016.short
4100  - http://openres.ersjournals.com/content/3/3/00150-2016.full
SO  - erjor2017 Jul 01; 3
AB  - While there is evidence for variations in prevalence rates of childhood wheeze and asthma between countries, longitudinal, individual-level data are needed to understand these differences. The aim of this study was to examine variations in prevalence rates of childhood asthma, wheeze and wheeze with asthma in Europe.We analysed datasets from 10 MeDALL (Mechanisms of the Development of ALLergy) cohorts in eight countries, representing 26 663 children, to calculate prevalence rates of wheeze and asthma by child age and wheeze with asthma at age 4 years. Harmonised variables included outcomes parent-reported wheeze and parent-reported doctor-diagnosed asthma, and covariates maternal education, parental smoking, pets, parental asthma, doctor-diagnosed allergic rhinitis, doctor-diagnosed eczema and wheeze severity.At age 4 years, asthma prevalence varied from 1.72% in Germany to 13.48% in England and the prevalence of wheeze varied from 9.82% in Greece to 55.37% in Spain. Adjusted estimates of the proportion of 4-year-old children with wheeze diagnosed with asthma remained highest in England (38.14%, 95% CI 31.38–44.90%) and lowest in Spain (15.94%, 95% CI 6.16–25.71%).The large differences in prevalence rates of asthma, wheeze and wheeze with asthma at age 4 years between European cohorts may indicate that childhood asthma is more readily diagnosed in some countries while going unrecognised elsewhere.Large variations in childhood wheeze across Europe do not match large variations in diagnosed childhood asthma http://ow.ly/eJQk30aPInr