Increase in prevalence of physician-diagnosed asthma in Helsinki during the Finnish Asthma Programme: improved recognition of asthma in primary care? A cross-sectional cohort study

Abstract

Background: The continuing rise in asthma prevalence has been questioned, with recent reports suggesting a plateau.

Increased prevalence of allergic asthma from 1996 to 2006 and further to 2016—results from three population surveys

“…Among adults in Norway and Denmark, the prevalence of asthma increased from the 1970s to the 1990s and in Denmark further to 2004 . A study from 1996 to 2006, very similar to ours, in the capital of Finland reported an increase in physician‐diagnosed asthma partly due to increased diagnostic recognition but also a parallel increase in ARC which supported a true increase in asthma prevalence . Italy is a country with an average asthma prevalence and rather high smoking prevalence where a large proportion of people with asthma lack treatment, and a continuing increase in both current asthma and allergic rhinitis was observed from 1991 to 2010 in three cross‐sectional studies of subjects aged 20‐44 years .…”

“…22 The asthma prevalence differs between regions and is high in north-western Europe including the British Isles and the Nordic countries, 1,21,23 estimated at about 10% of the adult population or even more in recent studies. 1,2,13,15,24 In Sweden, the smoking prevalence has been steadily decreasing by more than half over the last decades, and the prevalence of COPD has decreased. 25 On the other hand, the prevalence of allergic rhinitis, which is associated with asthma, has been increasing.…”

National and regional asthma programmes in Europe

“…The first European National Asthma Programme was the Finnish 10-year programme (1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004), which has been the model for other European and non-European programmes. Results and several follow-up reports of the Finnish programme have been published previously [52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59]. Apart from the Finnish programme, results have only been published from the Polish [14,15] and Portuguese [17] programmes.…”

Asthma and lung function in adulthood after a viral wheezing episode in early childhood

“…In the current study setting, we are not able to determine whether or not the lung function patterns found in the study subjects with RV-or RSV-induced wheezing histories are induced by early viral infections or merely reflect the lung function patterns already present before the viral infection occurred. 49 In conclusion, study subjects with an early-childhood wheezing episode, induced by RV, RSV, or other viruses have an increased risk for asthma at the age of 17-20 years compared to controls without such wheezing history. 46 The strengths of the present prospective controlled study are the long follow-up time and careful collection of data during enrolment of study subjects, which included advanced methods of viral detection.…”