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National Publications

The following publications used ISAAC data from Canada:

  • Habbick BF, Pizzichini MM, Taylor B, Rennie D, Senthilselvan A, Sears MR. Prevalence of asthma, hay fever and eczema in children in two canadian cities: the ISAAC study. CMAJ 1999; 160: 1824-1829.
  • Pizzichini MM, Rennie D, Senthilselvan A, Taylor B, Habbick BF, Sears MR. Limited agreement between written and video asthma symptom questionnaires. Pediatr Pulmonol 2000; 30(4): 307-12.
  • Wang HY, Wong GW, Chen YZ, Ferguson A, Greene J, Ma Y, Zhong NS, Lai CKW, Sears M. Prevalence of asthma among Chinese adolescents living in Canada and in China. CMAJ 2008 179: 1133-1142.
  • Wang H-Y, Pizzichini MMM, Becker AB, Duncan JM, Ferguson AC, Greene JM, Rennie DC, Senthilselvan A, Taylor BW, Sears MR. Disparate geographic prevalences of asthma, allergic rhinoconjunctivitis and atopic eczema among adolescents in five Canadian cities. Pediatr Allergy Immunol 2010; 21(5): 867–877.

Canada, North America

Centres:Phase:PI:Age Groups
Hamilton1 Professor Malcolm R Sears 6-7
Saskatoon1 Dr Brett Taylor 13-14, 6-7
Saskatoon3 Professor Donna Rennie 13-14, 6-7
Vancouver3 Professor Alex Ferguson 13-14

National Coordinator:

Roles:

  • National Coordinator for Canada
  • Phase One Principal Investigator for Hamilton

Professor Malcolm R Sears

Professor Malcolm R Sears

St. Joseph's Healthcare
Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health


Canada

THE ISAAC STORY – CANADA UPDATE

Phase I was conducted in two centres – Hamilton (Professor Malcolm Sears, National Coordinator for Canada, and Dr Marcia Pizzichini) and Saskatoon (Dr Brett Taylor, Dr Donna Rennie, Dr Ambikaipakan Sentilselvan, Dr Brian Habbick) in both 6-7 yr olds (Grade 1) and 13-13 yr olds (Grade 8).

Phase I was conducted from 1993-1994. Response rates were 75.1% among 6-7 year olds and 68.6% among 13-14 year olds, with 3337, 3051, 2418 and 1901 subjects participating in younger and older age groups in Hamilton and Saskatoon respectively.

Two publications arose from the Canadian Phase 1 data:

  • Habbick BF, Pizzichini MMM, Taylor B, Rennie D, Senthilselvan A, Sears MR. Prevalence of asthma, rhinitis and eczema among children in 2 Canadian cities: the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood. Can Med Assoc J. 1999; 160:1824-1828.
    • High prevalence rates of asthma, rhinitis and eczema were found in both cities, similar to rates in other Western countries, with up to 30% reporting wheezing in the previous 12 months
  • Pizzichini MMM, Rennie D, Senthilselvan A, Taylor B, Habbick BF, Sears MR. Limited agreement between written and video asthma symptom questionnaires. Ped Pulmonol 2000;30:307-312.
    • This paper concluded that the video questionnaire yielded lower reported prevalence rates for asthma symptoms, and that there is limited agreement between responses to the two questionnaires that is not explained by issues of language, culture or literacy.

Phase II was not undertaken by any centre in Canada

Phase III was again coordinated by Professor Malcolm Sears, with five participating centres from the east coast to the west – Halifax (Dr Brett Taylor), Hamilton (Dr Malcolm Sears), Winnipeg (Dr Allan Becker), Saskatoon (Dr Donna Rennie, Dr Ambikaipakan Sentilselvan), and Vancouver (Dr Alexander Ferguson). All centres recruited 13-14 yr olds (Grade 8) and four centres recruited 6-7 yr olds (Grade 1). The multiplicity of parental languages in Vancouver precluded developing questionnaires for 6-7 year olds, whereas 1-14 yr olds were sufficiently competent in English to use that version only. Recruitment across all sites was much more difficult than in Phase I, and only Vancouver (which used passive consent whereas the other 4 centers were all obligated by their Research Ethics Boards to use active parental consent) achieved a sufficient response rate to be included in the international study statistics.

Despite the low response rates, two useful publications arose from Phase III in Canada

  • Wang H-Y, Wong GWK, Chen Y-Z, Ferguson AC, Greene JM, Ma Y, Zhong N-S, Lai CKW, Sears MR. Prevalence of asthma among Chinese adolescents living in Canada and in China. Can Med Assoc J 2008;179:1133-1142
    • Asthma symptoms in Chinese adolescents were lowest among residents of mainland China, were greater for those in Hong Kong and those who had immigrated to Canada, and were highest among those born in Canada, suggesting environmental factors and duration of exposure influence asthma prevalence
  • Wang H-Y, Pizzichini MMM, Becker AB, Duncan JM, Ferguson AC, Greene JM, Rennie DC, Senthilselvan A, Taylor BW, Sears MR. Disparate geographic prevalences of asthma, allergic rhinoconjunctivitis and atopic eczema among adolescents in 5 Canadian cities. Pediatr Allergy Immunol 2010;21:867-877
    • The highest prevalence rates for allergic rhinoconjuctivitis or atopic eczema were not in the same regions as the highest prevalence rates of wheezing