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Health consequences associated with frequent wheezing in adolescents without asthma diagnosis

¹ Dept of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, and ³ Center for Environmental Medicine, Asthma and Lung Biology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and ² Worldwide Epidemiology, GlaxoSmithKline Research Triangle Park, NC, USA

CORRESPONDENCE: K. Yeatts, Campus Box #7435, School of Public Health, McGavran Greenberg Hall, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7435, USA. Fax: 1 9199662089. E-mail: Karin_Yeatts@unc.edu

Keywords: adolescents, asthma, functional consequences, healthcare utilisation, wheezing

Received: October 21, 2002
Accepted June 30, 2003

The North Carolina Dept of Health and Human Services funded the implementation, data collection, and preliminary analyses of the statewide asthma survey. Further data analyses were funded by GlaxoSmithKline.

Using questions from the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood, this study evaluated the association between undiagnosed frequent wheezing and health consequences in adolescents.

The North Carolina School Asthma Survey provided self-reported questionnaire data on respiratory health from 122,829 children aged 12–14 yrs. The frequency of health consequences were compared among undiagnosed frequent wheezers, diagnosed asthmatics, and children with no wheezing symptoms or diagnosed asthma.

The odds of wheezing-related sleep disturbances, limited activities, and missed school were higher among undiagnosed frequent wheezers, relative to diagnosed asthmatics. The frequency of emergency room visits and hospitalisations did not differ substantially between the undiagnosed wheezing and diagnosed asthma groups, though the undiagnosed group was less likely to have visited a physician for wheezing in the past year.

Children with frequent wheezing symptoms but no asthma diagnosis experience substantial illness-related morbidity similar to that of diagnosed asthmatics. Undiagnosed frequent wheezers require more recognition from primary care physicians and need active disease management to reduce health consequences.

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