Trends in Childhood Asthma: Prevalence, Health Care Utilization, and Mortality

Our objective was to use national data to produce a comprehensive description of trends in childhood asthma prevalence, health care utilization, and mortality to assess changes in the disease burden among US children.

Five data sources from the National Center for Health Statistics were used to describe trends in asthma for children aged 0 to 17 years from 1980 to the most recent year for which data were available. These included the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, the National Hospital Discharge Survey, and the Mortality Component of the National Vital Statistics System.