Asthma Prevalence among Pregnant and Childbearing-aged Women in the United States: Estimates from National Health Surveys
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INTRODUCTION
Asthma is reported to be the most common obstructive pulmonary disease of pregnancy and one of the most common serious medical conditions to complicate pregnancy 1., 2.. Trends in asthma prevalence in the United States have increased over the past several decades, particularly among younger age groups, suggesting a concurrent increase in prevalence in the pregnant population 3., 4.. Nevertheless, there are currently no reliable estimates of the prevalence of asthma during pregnancy in the
Inclusion Criteria
A search conducted in Medline from 1966 through February 2002 using the search terms “asthma,” “pregnancy,” “prevalence” and “national health surveys” confirmed that no previous estimates for asthma during pregnancy had been derived from national health surveys. All health surveys available through the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) were explored for direct inquiries to respondents about pregnancy and current asthma status. We excluded the
Estimates of Asthma Prevalence during Pregnancy
We derived estimates of the prevalence of asthma in pregnant and all childbearing-aged women from the following unweighted numbers of women 18 to 44 years of age: 107,425 in the 2000–2001 BRFSS, 38,073 in the 1997–2000 NHIS, and 4957 in NHANES III. The weighted proportion of current pregnancy among all women aged 18 to 44 years of age ranges from 4.4% in the 1997–2000 NHIS to 5.7% in NHANES III. Age adjustment did not substantially change any of the results, and unadjusted estimates will be
DISCUSSION
Data from the US national health surveys demonstrate that the prevalence of asthma during pregnancy is currently between 3.7% (NHIS, 95% CI, 2.7%, 4.7%) and 8.4% (BRFSS, 95% CI, 7.1%, 9.8%). The prevalence appears to be increasing, as indicated by increasing prevalence among younger pregnant women in these data, as well as increasing trends over time in women of childbearing age in NHANES. In marked contrast, a recent study of hospital discharge records for 447,963 singleton live births in New
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