A sequence of questions was designed to quantify the within subject variation of exercise tolerance limited by breathlessness, to serve as a guide to variation in airflow limitation for epidemiological purposes. The questions seek answers about breathlessness in relation to various levels of attempted activity when the subjects are at their best and at their worst. The difference between exerci...

The frequency of asthma in 10 971 school-children between the ages of 5 and 14 years was reported by their parents to be 3-8%. Of these, 20-7% were said to have had bronchitis, 5-9% pneumonia, and 4-7% eczema. Asthma was reported more commonly in boys than girls and was greatest in children of social classes I and II. One-third of the children were reported to have their first attack before the...

By means of a simple questionnaire and measurements of height, weight, and peak expiratory flow rates 3061 children from city and rural populations were studied. Children with asthma or other respiratory diseases had lower peak expiratory flow rates, and younger children living in rural areas had higher rates. In 2828 healthy children the peak expiratory flow rate increased with age, height, an...

OBJECTIVES Previous research found measures of pulmonary functioning to be strong predictors of cognitive functioning and mortality; however, there is considerable individual variability in performance on these measures. In the present analyses, the relative contribution of genetic and environmental influences to variability in average peak expiratory flow rate (APEFR) are examined in a sample ...

BACKGROUND Spirometry is a valuable technique for evaluating pulmonary function, but there were few normative reference values for young children in Taiwan, and none for the last 10 years. The objective of our study was to establish updated reference values and equations for children aged 6-11 years in northern Taiwan. METHODS A total of 309 healthy children (153 boys and 156 girls) were enro...