EXPLORATORY SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF PREVALENCE OF ASTHMA AND ALLERGY IN CHILD AND ADOLESCENT SPANISH POPULATION

Abstract

The most prevalent diseases in childhood in Spain are asthma and allergy, according to the 2017 National Health Survey. The aim was to carry out a review of the current literature to evaluate the articles in which, at least one of its objectives, studied the prevalence of allergy and asthma in the child and adolescent population in Spain. Material and methods. A bibliographic search was carried out in different databases. In addition, a search was carried out in the pages of the Departments of Health, Health Services of each Autonomous Community and in the Ministry of Health, Consumption and Social Welfare. The pages of other Organizations were consulted, such as: Global Initiative for asthma or the World Health Organization, among others. Results. They showed great heterogeneity in terms of prevalences, due to the different diagnostic criteria used, the age studied and the Community. There were very few articles related to allergy prevalence values and these ranged from 34-40%. More studies related to the prevalence of asthma were found, where the values were very disparate, ranging from 4.02% to 42.80%. There are very few articles that study the prevalence of asthma in Spanish children and adolescents, which makes it difficult to obtain reliable prevalence data. There are gaps in knowledge about the prevalence of allergy and asthma, although it could be stated that these are two prevalent diseases in childhood and adolescence in Spain. It would be necessary to continue documenting studies to increase knowledge in this population group. It is noteworthy that the decrease in the opacity of future studies, with respect to that existing in current studies, would facilitate their replication or the comparison of the data they present.