§ Mr. OatenTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what data his Department collects on childhood asthma; and if he will set out the figures for the last 10 years. [86407]
§ Mr. HuttonThere are no comprehensive data on the number of children with asthma. The Department's Central Health Monitoring Unit brought together a broad range of the best statistics on asthma in "Asthma: An Epidemiological Overview" (1995), copies of which are available in the Library. This report quotes an estimate, on the basis of all the information available, that
the prevalence of asthma sufficiently severe to require regular medical supervision is from 4–6 per cent. in children".The Department routinely collects data on hospital in-patient care for asthma. The numbers (in thousands) of hospital in-patient cases (ie finished consultant episodes—ordinary admissions and day cases) in which asthma was the main diagnosis (ICD 10 codes J45 and J46 from 1995–96; ICD 9 code 493 before that) in England for the last ten years for which figures are available, among children aged 0 to 4 years and 5 to 14 years, are given in the table:
Age group 0–4 5—14 1988–89 38.8 23.0 1989–90 32.7 18.8 1990–91 32.3 16.7 1991–92 32.1 18.5 1992–93 31.9 16.2 1993–94 32.5 17.5 1994–95 28.6 14.8 1995–96 28.7 15.2 1996–97 25.7 12.0 1997–98 20.4 12.5 Notes
1. Figures for 1995–96 and earlier years are grossed for both coverage and unknown/invalid clinical data; 1996–97 and 1997-98 figures are provisional and ungrossed (no adjustments have yet been made for shortfalls in data).
2. A finished consultant episode (FCE) is defined as a period of patient care under the care of an individual consultant within one health care provider. FCE figures do not represent the number of patients as a person may have more than one episode of care during the year.
Source
Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES), Department of Health
The Department also commissions the annual Health Survey for England, copies of the reports of which are also available in the Library. The surveys for 1995, 1996 and 1997 included questions on asthma. According to the 418W report of the 1997 Survey, 23 per cent. of boys and 18 per cent. of girls aged 2 to 15 years had been diagnosed at some time in the past as suffering from asthma.
§ Mr. OatenTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what research his Department has carried out on asthma in young children; and what plans he has for further research. [86406]
§ Mr. HuttonThe Department, the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions and the Medical Research Council are jointly funding a major research initiative on the relationship between air pollution and respiratory disease. The National Asthma Campaign is managing, on behalf of the National Health Service Executive, the NHS National research and development programme on asthma management. Many of the research projects commissioned under these initiatives will be pertinent to asthma in children.
The Medical Research Council which receives most of its income via grant-in-aid from the Office of Science and Technology in the Department of Trade and Industry also spends about £2 million a year on research into prevention and treatment of asthma and related areas.