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In summary,
analysis of a large, nationally representative survey of young children revealed
substantial discordance between maternal reports and medical records on asthma. Mothers
identified many children as asthmatic that doctors did not report, and conversely, doctors
reported many children as asthmatic that their mothers did not call asthmatic. These
differences resulted in varying estimates of asthma prevalence in the general child
population. In addition, the characteristics of children identified as asthmatic varied
substantially depending on which source of asthma reporting was used. Analyses of
maternally-reported cases found more socioeconomic and behavioral characteristics to be
predictive of asthma than did analyses of asthma cases identified in medical records. |