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Volume 356:1073 March 8, 2007 Number 10
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The Asthma Epidemic

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by Eder, W.
To the Editor: Eder and colleagues (Nov. 23 issue)1 describe the high prevalence and incidence of asthma in the Western world. However, survey instruments that rely on physicians' or patients' reports of diagnosis for case ascertainment do not provide robust measurements of asthma and may be unreliable for estimating its prevalence.2 No single instrument can identify asthma with certainty. Exacerbations of asthma are episodic, are of limited duration, and share clinical features with other disorders, complicating accurate diagnosis. In addition, no theory has been confirmed to explain an asthma epidemic.

The authors should comment more analytically on the possibility that . . . [Full Text of this Article]



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