Prevalence Of Asthma In The Mainly Indigenous Torres Strait Region

Main Category: Respiratory / Asthma
Article Date: 23 May 2008 - 4:00 PDT

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Part of the Youth Health Screening project, this study examines two surveys conducted in 1999 and 2003- measuring the prevalence of asthma in the mainly Indigenous Torres Strait region.

The findings show that although the percentage of children having asthma symptoms was slightly lower in the 2003 study, the overall rates of asthma remianed stable over the four year period.

The prevalence of asthma among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children is similar to that of mainland Australian children - who have one of the highest asthma rates in the world.

While there was no increase in asthma prevalence in this population during the studied period, there are still a significant number of Indigenous children suffering from chronic asthma.

"Stable prevalence of asthma symptoms in school-aged children in the Torres Strait region"
Patricia C. Valery, Anne B. Chang, Ian B. Masters, Janelle Stirling, Yancy Laifoo and Aletia Twist
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Respirology is a journal of international standing, publishing peer-reviewed articles of scientific excellence in clinical and experimental respiratory biology and disease and its related fields of research including thoracic surgery, internal medicine, immunology, intensive and critical care, epidemiology, cell and molecular biology, pathology, pharmacology and physiology.

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