13.2.2. Prevalence by Age and Sex There are two available sources of data showing breakdowns of asthma prevalence by age and sex, however, neither source is able to give prevalence rates specific to England. These sources are the Key Statistics for General Practice 1998 (used in the Doncaster model above) and the Health Survey for England 2001. Figure 13.5 below gives a breakdown of the national age-sex specific prevalence of asthma taken from the latter source, with the highest asthma prevalence in young males, and a higher prevalence in females after the age of 20: Figure 13.5 Asthma prevalence by age and sex Source: Health Survey for England
30.00% Males Females 25.00%
20.00%
15.00%
10.00%
5.00%
0.00% 0-9
10 - 19
20 - 29
30 - 39
40 - 49
50 - 59
60 - 69
70 - 79
80+
13.2.3. Asthma Prevalence by Socio-Economic Status and Ethnicity Relatively little information could be found quantifying the link between socioeconomic status (SES), ethnicity and the prevalence of asthma, however, a recent review for the British Medical Journal found the relationship between SES and the aetiology of asthma in children was inconsistent across studies. In terms of asthmatic episodes, a much stronger relationship was found, with higher rates of hospital admissions and mortality found in the most deprived groups (http://www.cks.nhs.uk/asthma/evidence). In adults, some studies have found links between SES and asthma, however, these studies have also often commented on the difficulty of separating asthma and COPD, which leads to problems due to the strong relationship between COPD prevalence and SES. When considering variations in asthma prevalence due to ethnicity, many studies are small scale, or focused on the incidence of asthmatic episodes, not prevalence. The most recent large-scale survey using UK data was a 2007 study of nearly 50,000 children, which found two groups with a statistically significant difference in prevalence. These were Black Caribbean (with above average prevalence) and Bangladeshi (with below average prevalence) (Panico et al. 2007).
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