Abstract

Asthma was found to affect 4·8% of Aberdeen schoolchildren aged 10 to 15 years, the ratio of affected boys to girls being 2·2:1.

In the majority of children, asthma caused frequent absence from school in the early years: at the time of the study there was still some adverse effect on education in half of the children with severe asthma but in only a minority of those with moderate or mild asthma.

There was an excess of severe asthma in the children of semi- and unskilled manual workers (social classes IV and V). Children with severe asthma tended to come from large families, regardless of social class.

The children with asthma had a higher mean IQ than the general study population.