ISAAC Findings

In many areas of the world, ISAAC Phases One and Three provided the first population-based assessment of the prevalence and severity of asthma and allergic diseases among children. ISAAC Phase Three produced the first internationally comparable estimates of direction and magnitude of change in symptoms of asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis and atopic eczema.

In ISAAC Phases Two and Three, symptoms and objective measures of asthma and allergy have been related to individual exposure to environmental factors and to genetic markers. Ecological analyses have also been conducted, relating prevalence of these conditions to characteristics of the populations living in each of the study centres.

Details of all ISAAC publications can be found on the ISAAC website, together with a search facility to identify publications by title, author, year, ISAAC phase or location. The location may be global, regional, national or local (single centre).

In this section we focus upon the findings of worldwide comparisons, and their global impact. Details of other publications may be found on the regional, national and centre pages under “Centres”.