Current asthma prevalence is shown in blue for 2001-2003. It is estimated by the following two questions:

"Has a doctor or other health professional ever told you that your child had asthma?" and if YES, "Does your child still have asthma?" In contrast to the asthma attack prevalence question that produces lower estimates than the old NHIS question ("Did your child have asthma in the past 12 months?"), the current asthma prevalence question probably produces higher estimates because it is not limited to the past 12 months. That is, current asthma prevalence estimates available beginning in 2001 also ARE NOT COMPARABLE to asthma period prevalence estimates from 1980-1996. That is, you cannot draw a trend line from 1980 through 2003, even with the modified estimates for 1997-2000.

However, we can surmise from the pattern of relative stability of asthma attack prevalence during 1997-2003 that it is likely that asthma prevalence, no matter how it is measured, stopped increasing rapidly after the mid 1990s. This pattern of a plateau after years of increases is also seen for asthma hospitalizations and deaths (see reference 4). Therefore, it is likely that the overall asthma burden among children plateaued after the mid 1990s.