(BQ) Part 2 book “Kendig's disorders of the respiratory tract in children” has contents: Severe asthma, the influence of upper airway disease on the lower airway, genetics and pathophysiology of cystic fibrosis, diagnosis and presentation of cystic fibrosis, pulmonary disease in cystic fibrosis, and other contents. | SECTION 4 Asthma OUTLINE 42 The Epidemiology of Asthma 43 The Immunopathogenesis of Asthma 44 Asthma in the Preschool Age Child 45 Wheezing in Older Children Asthma 46 Severe Asthma 47 The Influence of Upper Airway Disease on the Lower Airway 48 Modern Molecular Therapies for Application in Managing Childhood Asthma 2362 42 The Epidemiology of Asthma Alexander John Henderson MD, FRCP, FRCPCH, FRCPEd Overview Asthma is one of the most common noncommunicable chronic diseases of childhood. It creates a major public health and economic burden on society through its impact on mortality, morbidity, lost school days for children, lost workdays for parents, quality of life (QoL), and costs of health care. Epidemiologic studies have tracked changes in asthma prevalence across time and place and have provided insights into some of the environmental influences that might influence asthma onset, severity, persistence, and outcome. Longitudinal cohort studies have pointed to early life factors, including genetic predisposition, as being critically important in the development of asthma; however, its cause remains elusive. Recent advances in understanding the genetics of asthma and the application of more robust causal epidemiologic models to the consideration of modifiable exposures associated with asthma onset and natural history have started to get around some of the traditional problems of bias and confounding in epidemiology that hamper the identification of the true causes of disease. This chapter will review asthma epidemiology with particular emphasis on how technological and methodological progress can help unlock the potential of the considerable recent growth of asthma 2363 epidemiologic studies around the world. Epidemiologic Approaches to the Study of Asthma The goal of epidemiology is to identify modifiable factors that influence disease in populations, thus leading to interventions that will prevent disease from occurring or alter its natural .
