A survey of 3,700 children, aged between seven and 11, found that 26 per cent of them had been diagnosed with asthma since birth. A further 26 per cent suffered from eczema and 19 per cent from hayfever.
The findings come from the most recent study in a series that began in 1964. Aberdeen is unique worldwide in having a picture of trends in childhood asthma and allergic disease going back to that time.
The number of children with eczema and hay fever has risen since 1999 but, for the first time since the surveys began, the percentage of children who have wheezed in the last three years has not increased, suggesting the peak of the 'asthma epidemic' has passed.
Also for the first time, there were equal numbers of girls and boys who had wheezed in the past three years. This is a dramatic change from 1964, when there were five boys with wheeze for every three girls.
Researcher Dr GeraldineMcNeill said, 'We suspect that there has been a change in some environmental factor which has different influences according to gender, but further research will be needed to find out what this is.'
The study reinforces findings published by Asthma UK in 2004, which showed the number of children with asthma had fallen from one in eight to one in ten between 1996 and 2001.