Prevalence of asthma in representative samples of men and women screened for asthma at ECRHS-I, and in men and women participating in ECHRS-I, stage 2 (1991–1993) and ECHRS-II (1998–2002)
| ECRHS-I screening (N=87 188) | ECRHS-I, stage 2 (N=15 483) | ECRHS-II (N=9091) | ||||
| Current asthma (number of cases/number of subjects included*) % | ||||||
| Age 20–27 years | ||||||
| Men | (731/12 897) | 5.67 | (103/1998) | 5.16 | – | |
| Women | (769/13 694) | 5.62 | (114/2099) | 5.43 | – | |
| OR† | 0.98 (95% CI 0.88 to 1.09) | 1.06 (95% CI 0.80 to 1.39) | – | |||
| Age 28–35 years | ||||||
| Men | (622/13743) | 4.53 | (97/2371) | 4.09 | (62/940) | 6.60 |
| Women | (696/14655) | 4.75 | (110/2670) | 4.12 | (64/1016) | 6.30 |
| OR | 1.03 (95% CI 0.92 to 1.16) | 1.01 (95% CI 0.76 to 1.33) | 0.95 (95% CI 0.66 to 1.37) | |||
| Age 36–44 years | ||||||
| Men | (641/14608) | 4.39 | (95/2803) | 3.39 | (89/1551) | 5.74 |
| Women | (841/15909) | 5.29 | (141/3004) | 4.69 | (120/1751) | 6.85 |
| OR | 1.21 (95% CI 1.09 to 1.34) | 1.40 (95% CI 1.08 to 1.83) | 1.21 (95% CI 0.91 to 1.60) | |||
| Age 45–52 years | ||||||
| Men | (70/1491) | 4.69 | ||||
| Women | (124/1648) | 7.52 | ||||
| OR | 1.68 (95% CI 1.24 to 2.29) | |||||
| Doctor-diagnosed current asthma (n/N) % | ||||||
| Men | (269/7411) | 3.63 | (220/4317) | 5.10 | ||
| Women | (351/8053) | 4.36 | (304/4753) | 6.40 | ||
| OR | 1.21 (95% CI 1.03 to 1.42) | 1.27 (95% CI 1.06 to 1.52) | ||||
| Subjects reporting ≥3 asthma-like symptoms‡ (n/N) % | ||||||
| Men | (467/7418) | 6.30 | (227/4326) | 5.25 | ||
| Women | (628/8065) | 7.79 | (338/4765) | 7.09 | ||
| OR | 1.26 (95% CI 1.11 to 1.42) | 1.38 (95% CI 1.16 to 1.64) | ||||
| Asthma-like symptoms plus bronchial hyperresponsiveness (n/N§) % | ||||||
| Men | (308/6809) | 4.52 | (147/3853) | 3.82 | ||
| Women | (464/7092) | 6.54 | (230/4072) | 5.65 | ||
| OR | 1.48 (95% CI 1.27 to 1.71) | 1.51 (95% CI 1.22 to 1.87) | ||||
↵* 1190 subjects with age at screening >44 years and 492 subjects with data on ‘current asthma’ missing at the screening survey were not included. For ECRHS-I stage 2 the corresponding figures are 519 and 19. For ECRHS-II, 673 subjects with age >52 years and 21 with data on ‘current asthma’ missing were not included.
↵† OR >1 indicates a higher prevalence in women compared with men. For ECRHS-I screening the ORs are Mantel-Haenszel OR stratified for centre. Within each age group, Breslow-Day tests for heterogeneity across centres were all not significant (p>0.30). Other ORs are crude estimates.
↵‡ Number of positive answers to any of the five following items: breathless while wheezing, woken up with a feeling of chest tightness, attack of shortness of breath at rest, attack of shortness of breath after exercise, and woken by an attack of shortness of breath.
↵§ Subjects were only included if they did not have missing values for the BHR test.
ECHRS, European Community Respiratory Health Survey.