An international survey has found almost a third of Maori children have asthma.
Dr Lis Ellison-Loschmann from Massey University's centre for public health research, studied the health of 13,000 children between six and 14 years.
She told Waatea News the overall number of asthma sufferers has not changed much in 10 years.
However, the number of Pakeha children with symptoms has decreased while the number of Maori with asthma has increased.
The research was part of an international survey of about a million children in more than 100 countries.
