Asher MI, Rutter CE, Bissell K, et al. - Over the past three decades, variations in the trends of prevalence and severity of asthma symptoms have been observed based on age group, country income, region, and center. To mitigate the high global burden of severe asthma symptoms, enabling access to effective therapies for asthma is a necessity.

• An updated cross-sectional study, Global Asthma Network Phase I study, included 119,795 participants from 27 centers in 14 countries, to investigate whether the global burden of asthma symptoms is changing.

• Presence of wheeze in the preceding year was reported by about one in ten individuals of both age groups (children aged 6–7 years and adolescents aged 13–14 years), almost half of these experienced severe symptoms.

• During a span of 27 years (1993–2020), adolescents had a significant reduction in percentage point prevalence per decade in severe asthma symptoms (–0·37) but an increase in ever having asthma (1·25) and night cough (4·25), which was also noted in children (3·21).

• A reduced prevalence of current wheeze was noted in low-income countries and the prevalence rose in lower-middle-income countries but was stable in upper-middle-income and high-income countries.