ABSTRACT

Asthma is a chronic disease caused by the inflammation of the main air passages of the lungs. This paper outlines a review of the published literature on asthma. While a few studies show a trend of rising asthma cases in the Caribbean region, even fewer have explored the genetic epidemiological factors of asthma. This is a literature review that seeks to sum the body of knowledge on the epidemiology of asthma. Specifically, the major objective of the literature review is to provide a unified information base on the current state of factors involved in the genetic epidemiology of asthma. The review is a simple, yet detailed summary of the literature sources and their methodology and findings on the genetic epidemiology of asthma. Further, it seeks to direct this effort to the Caribbean region. The paper then reviews a summarized and synthesized collection of the body of previous research. Of specific interest are peer-reviewed sources that have been published in recent times. The paper provides more recent insight and recapitulates on the previous research, while tracing the intellectual progress on the debate. Where possible, reviewing and discussing the results of the previous literature, this review singles out the gaps and potential future research directions for studying the genetic epidemiology of asthma. Overall, we hope to contribute to a more synthesized knowledge and improved understanding of the previous literature and future potential direction of genetic and epidemiological asthma research.