Asthma in Australia 2008 Table 2.1

Asthma in Australia 2008

Table 2.2
Prevalence of ever being diagnosed with asthma among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, 1999–2003

Location (source)	Year	Population	Age range	No. in survey	Rate (%)	95% CI
Ever had asthma
Western Australia(1)	2001–2002	Indigenous	0–3 years		16.8	14.3–19.5
			4–11 years		25.6	23.2–28.0
			12–17 years		24.4	21.4–27.6
			0–17 years	5,513	23.2	21.6–24.9
Australian Capital Territory (2)	1999–2001	Indigenous primary school entrants^(a)	4–6 years	203	27.6	21.8–34.2
Ever had wheezing or whistling in chest
Western Australia (1)	2001–2002	Indigenous	0–3 years		32.5	29.5–35.8
			4–11 years		28.4	25.9–31.1
			12–17 years		24.0	21.0–27.3
			0–17 years	5,513	28.0	26.2–29.9
Ever had asthma (‘short wind’)
Remote communities, North Queensland (3)	1999	Indigenous	0–17 years	1,650	15.8	14.0–17.6
Ever had short wind (asthma)
Torres Strait region, Qld (4)	2003	All persons^(b)	5–17 years	315	12.2	8.5–15.8

(a) In comparison, the prevalence of ‘ever had asthma’ among non-Indigenous primary school entrants was 23.5% (95% CI = 22.7–24.3%).

(b) 95.3% of the sample population were Indigenous and the remaining 4.7% were non-Indigenous.

Sources: (1) Western Australian Child Health Survey, Zubrick et al. 2004; (2) Glasgow et al. 2003; (3) Valery et al. 2001; (4) Valery et al. 2008.