High prevalence of atopy, but not of asthma, among children in an industrialized area in North Italy: The role of familial and environmental factors - a population-based study

The prevalence of atopy and asthma, and their association with familial and environmental factors were investigated among 13‐ to 14‐yr‐old children living in Brescia, an industrialized town in North Italy. All the 1450 children attending primary school in the town were invited to participate, and 967 of them (66.7%, 493 males) provided a valid questionnaire filled in by their parents at home. We used a modified version of the questionnaire adopted in the Italian Study of Respiratory Disorders in Childhood and Environment, which is an extended version of the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) questionnaire. Six hundred and twenty‐eight subjects underwent skin prick test (SPT), and 308 of them (49%) were positive for at least one of the 12 allergen extracts commonly employed. Ninety‐nine children (10.2%) had a physician's diagnosis of asthma – 12.4% of the males and 8.0% of the females (p = 0.03). The prevalence of wheezing in the past 12 months was 6.2%. Atopy was found in 76.8% of the subjects with, and in 45.6% of those without physician's diagnosis of asthma (p