ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the time trends in asthma mortality over the past century. Studies of time trends in asthma mortality have been stimulated by two recent epidemics of asthma death: one reported in several countries during the mid-1960s and a second isolated to New Zealand during the late 1970s. National and international mortality trend data have been used to generate hypotheses subsequently tested in analytic studies. Most recent epidemiological reviews of asthma mortality have restricted their period of observation to the last 30 or so years. There are a number of methodological issues that arise when longer-term trends are examined. In particular, changes in diagnostic fashions and death classification criteria over time can seriously affect the validity of trend data based on routinely collected national and international mortality statistics.
