Asthma And Economic Development

An intersting article has just been published in PLOS Medicine on the incidence of asthma in Ghana.

In Africa, asthma has typically been thought of as being very uncommon, and indeed in many African dialects there is no word for asthma or the symptoms, such as wheezing, that asthmatic children experience. This is a major contrast to what happens in the UK and other developed countries.

Unfortunately the study is showing that asthma, or at least exercise-induced bronchospasm is on the increase. Two studies of 3 schools in 1993 and again in 2003 showed the proportion of children with exercise-induced bronchospasm increased in all three schools; overall this proportion went up from 3.1% to 5.2%. Children from the rich city school were most likely to have exercise-induced bronchospasm at either survey date. However, children from the poor city school experienced the biggest change over the time period studied, with more than double the proportion of children having exercise-induced bronchospasm in 2003 as compared to 1993.