[Asthma and XXXX in childhood in Rome: Italian contribution to the ISAAC II].

@entity1 @entity748 @entity2023 @entity566 @entity565 @entity2490 @entity56 @entity1909 @entity484
A study about the frequency of respiratory and @entity56 in childhood was carried out in Rome, during the 2000-2001 school year. This survey represents the Italian contribution to the second phase of the International Study on Asthma and @entity566 in Childhood (ISAAC Phase Two). A properly filled in ISAAC Phase II questionnaire was returned by parents of 1,760 @entity1 attending the fifth grade in primary school (83.5% of the target). Prick tests were performed to provide an objective measure of atopy, defined as skin reactivity to one or more allergens. The presence of visible @entity1909 was determined through skin examination. Lifetime prevalence for @entity565 , @entity2023 and @entity484 was 12.4%, 13.2% and 15.1%, respectively. Period prevalence in the last 12 months was 7.0% for attacks of wheezing or whistling in the chest, 9.1% for @entity2490 symptoms, and 9.5% for @entity1909 . A total of 1.6% of the @entity1 under examination had a visible @entity1909 . Of the @entity1 who performed prick test, 31.8% was skin positive at least to one of the adopted allergens. An international comparison with the results of other ISAAC Phase Two studies (conducted in Albania, Germany, Hong Kong, UK and Sweden) has shown that Rome and Hong Kong were the areas with the highest prevalence rate for atopy, but had comparatively low proportions of @entity748 subjects. This inconsistency suggests that factors other than atopy could be responsible for the geographic epidemiological distribution of @entity565 .
