Final Report Part III ECHIM Pilot Data Collection Analyses and Dissemination

For ECHI#26, it was not differentiated between the allergic and non-allergic forms of asthma.
The allergic asthma dominates in children (which have not been covered by EHIS), while 30-50% of adult
asthmatics suffer from the non-allergic type, often provoked by respiratory infections. Finally, there are also
mixed forms of allergic and non-allergic asthma. [2].
The President of the European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients’ Associations (EFA) gave a
summary of the Global Burden of Asthma report and commented in 2004 that in the 20 years from the mid
1970s to the mid 1990s, the prevalence of asthma in children rose by 200%.[3]
Asthma prevalence in Europe varies widely, from 18.4% in Scotland to 2.3% in Switzerland. Key findings for EU
included:
• The United Kingdom has amongst the highest prevalence of asthma in the world, with asthma occurring
in 16% of the population
• During the next decade the increase in prevalence of asthma is likely to be particularly marked in the
former socialist countries and the Baltic region, as these communities increasingly adopt the Western
lifestyle.
The phenomenon of the quite low prevalence percentages in "new" EU countries may be explained with the ongoing
transitional processes of national health care systems if compared with core EU countries, and a general
limited access to health care services. A glance at Eurostat's EU SILC indicator 08 [4] "People with unmet needs
for medical examination by sex, age, reason and income quintile (%)" provides the information that particular
persons belonging to the lower three income quintiles report large financial barriers in the mentioned "new"
Member States. So people might suffer from certain types of asthma but can neither afford MD consultations
(therefore no diagnoses) nor suitable medications. If largely privatised health systems and severe out-of-pocket
expenditures exclude the poor from adequate health care provision, it poses a challenge for fighting health
inequalities throughout the European Union, too.
Since the lowest prevalence percentages of health status indicators are mostly reported from eastern European
and Baltic countries, it will be interesting to follow future developments of asthma prevalence. The next EHIS is
planned for 2014, but also administrative sources or smaller projects could throw some light on the above stated
association [3] between western lifestyle and asthma.
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