Ethnic variation in childhood asthma and wheezing illnesses: findings from the Millennium Cohort Study

BACKGROUND: It is not clear how respiratory morbidity during early childhood varies across ethnic groups in the UK. This article seeks to determine whether asthma and wheeze illnesses during early childhood differ across ethnic groups and what factors explain observed differences. METHODS: Data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study on 14,630 children were analyzed from the second sweep of interviews. Parental interviews were conducted when the cohort member was aged approximately 3(1/2) years. Data collected included the occurrence of asthma and wheezing symptoms, biological and socio-economic factors and markers of cultural tradition. RESULTS: At age 3, 12.3% (n = 1,902) of children had ever had asthma and 20.0% (n = 3,030) had wheezed in the last 12 months. 18.2% of…