Asthma prevalence in adults: good news?

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Few diseases have a relation to age which is as fascinating and complex as for asthma. It is a chronic but not necessarily lifelong condition. The incidence of asthma and wheezing illness peaks in very early childhood, but new incident cases occur throughout life.1– 4 In many affected subjects, particularly children, it disappears after some time.2– 4 However, in a substantial proportion of cases which have apparently lost the disease it will come back, often after many years.3, 4 Another intriguing feature is that the sex ratio changes with age. Most studies show that boys are affected more often by wheezing illnesses than girls, but this sex ratio usually reverses during or shortly after puberty, partly due to a higher incidence in females.5– 9