Who Gets Diagnosed With Asthma?
Objective. 1) To describe the factors associated with not receiving an asthma diagnosis among children with frequent wheezing symptoms and 2) to determine risk factors for frequent wheezing in the population. Methods. The North Carolina School Asthma Survey provided self-reported questionnaire data on respiratory health from 122 829 children ages 12 to 18 years enrolled in 499 public middle schools in North Carolina during the 1999 2000 school year. Questions from the International Survey of Allergies and Asthma in Childhood were used to estimate the prevalence of asthma and wheezing-related illness and associated factors. Results. Factors independently associated with undiagnosed frequent wheezing versus asymptomatic children included female gender (odds ratio [OR]: 1.45; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.35 1.54), current smoking (OR: 2.60; 95% CI: 2.43 2.79), exposure to household smoke (OR: 1.59; 95% CI: 1.50 1.70), low socioeconomic status (OR: 1.52; 95% CI: 1.42 1.63), and African
