Abstract
OBJECTIVE--To determine the prevalence of asthma in cohorts of Finnish young men in the period 1926-89. DESIGN--A retrospective analysis using reports and statistics of Finnish defence forces. SETTING--Call up examinations of candidates for military conscription and examination of conscripts discharged because of poor health. SUBJECTS--Roughly 900,000 men--that is, 98% of men of conscription age--examined in 1966-89 and a proportional but unknown number examined in 1926-61. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Asthma recognised at call up examination, exemption from military service, and discharge from military service because of asthma. RESULTS--During 1926-61 the prevalence of asthma recorded at call up examinations remained steady at between 0.02% and 0.08%. Between 1961 and 1966, however, a continuous, linear rise began, the prevalence increasing from 0.29% in 1966 to 1.79% in 1989--that is, representing a sixfold increase. Compared with 1961 the rise was 20-fold. From 1966 to 1989 the sum of exemptions and discharges from military service due to asthma increased analogously sixfold. CONCLUSIONS--If the apparent increase in asthma detected in Finnish young men was due entirely to improved diagnostic methods and other confounding effects then some 95% of cases must have gone undiagnosed in the years before 1966. This seems inconceivable, which suggests that much of the increase was real. This conclusion is strengthened by the observed rise in exemptions and discharges due to asthma.
Full text
PDF
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Aberg N. Asthma and allergic rhinitis in Swedish conscripts. Clin Exp Allergy. 1989 Jan;19(1):59–63. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2222.1989.tb02345.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Anderson H. R. Is the prevalence of asthma changing? Arch Dis Child. 1989 Jan;64(1):172–175. doi: 10.1136/adc.64.1.172. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Fleming D. M., Crombie D. L. Prevalence of asthma and hay fever in England and Wales. Br Med J (Clin Res Ed) 1987 Jan 31;294(6567):279–283. doi: 10.1136/bmj.294.6567.279. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Hill R., Williams J., Tattersfield A., Britton J. Change in use of asthma as a diagnostic label for wheezing illness in schoolchildren. BMJ. 1989 Oct 7;299(6704):898–898. doi: 10.1136/bmj.299.6704.898. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Littlejohns P., Ebrahim S., Anderson R. Prevalence and diagnosis of chronic respiratory symptoms in adults. BMJ. 1989 Jun 10;298(6687):1556–1560. doi: 10.1136/bmj.298.6687.1556. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]