Self-reported asthma in adults and proxy-reported asthma in children--Washington, 1997-1998.

Increased awareness of asthma as a public health problem reflects recent increases in asthma prevalence, asthma-related visits to hospital emergency departments, and asthma-related mortality. To assess the prevalence of asthma in Washington, the Washington State Department of Health added survey items on asthma to its 1997 and 1998 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey. This report summarizes the results of those surveys, which indicate that persons with asthma reported significantly lower health status than other respondents and that a substantial proportion of households with children reported having a child with asthma.