A study on prevalence of bronchial asthma among school children in field practice area of medical college in Central Karnataka
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18203/2349-3291.ijcp20150967Keywords:
Bronchial asthma, Children, Prevalence, ISAAC, Davangere cityAbstract
Background: Asthma in childhood is a chronic disease and, when unadorned, often results in augmented morbidity for the enduring and indirect economic fatalities for the community. The predominance of childhood bronchial asthma being amplified in developing countries like India due to rapid urbanization is imposing a challenge to health sector. This study aims to determine the prevalence of bronchial asthma and socio-demographic factors influencing the bronchial asthma among the school children in the field practice area.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in secondary schools in Davangere district, by utilizing International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Children (ISAAC) questionnaire tool for period of two months. Total of 550 school students were examined from the four schools of Davangere, two belonging to rural field practice area and two belonging to urban field practice area of J.J.M medical college, Davangere by using simple random selection.
Results: On the basis of ISAAC scoring, 25 (4.5%) were found to be the cases of asthma. Boys had a higher prevalence (5.14%) than girls (3.77%). Maximum numbers of positive cases were found at the age of 15 years, 10 (5.37 %) cases. Out of the 25 positive cases, 8 (32%) had wheezing or whistling in the chest in the past 12 months. Among 25 positive cases, from last 12 months, 6 children (24%) had attack of wheezing, maximum number of children had 4-12 times (67%) attack of wheezing.
Conclusions: Our data suggest that the actual prevalence of asthma and other 'wheezy' illnesses may be higher than that previously documented. Further studies are needed to confirm the difference in prevalence between urban and rural children and also to identify possible causes that could account for the higher urban prevalence in Davangere.
References
scope of the problem, 2015. Available at: http://www.who.int. Accessed 23 July 2015.
International study of Bronchial Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC). Worldwide variations in the prevalence of bronchial asthma symptoms. Eur Respir J. 1998;12:315-35.
The International Study of Bronchial Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) Steering Committee. Worldwide variation prevalence of symptoms of bronchial asthma, allergic rhino conjunctivitis, and atopic eczema: ISAAC. Lancet. 1998;351:1225-32.
Chhabra SK, Gupta CK, Chhabra P, Rajpal S. Prevalence of bronchial asthma in school children in Delhi. J Asthma. 1998;35:291-6.
Reid J, Marciniuk DD, Cockcroft DW. Bronchial Asthma management in the emergency department. Can Respir J. 2000;7:255-60.
Gürkan F, Ece A, Haspolat K, Derman O, Bosnak M. Predictors for multiple hospital admissions in children with bronchial asthma. Can Respir J. 2000;7:163-6.
Ahmad OB, Lopez AD, Inoue M. The decline in child mortality: a reappraisal. Bull World Health Organ. 2000;78:1175-91.
Gakidou E, Oza S, Fuertes CV, Lee DK, Sousa A, Hogan MC, et al. Improving child survival through environmental and nutritional interventions: the importance of targeting interventions toward the poor. JAMA. 2007;298:1876-87.
Vishwanathan R, Prasad M, Thakur AK, Sinha SP, Prakash N, Mody RK, et al. Epidemiology of asthma in an urban population: a random morbidity survey. J Indian Med Assoc. 1966;46:480-3.
Chhabra SK, Gupta CK, Chhabra P, Rajpal S. Risk factors for development of bronchial asthma in children in Delhi. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 1999;83:385-90.
Gupta D, Aggarwal AN, Kumar R, Jindal SK. Prevalence of bronchial Asthma and association with environmental tobacco smoke exposure in adolescent school children in Chandigarh, North India. J Asthma. 2001;38:501-7.
Singh D, Sobti PC, Arora V, Soni RK. Epidemiological study of asthma in rural children. Indian J Community Med. 2002;27:167-70.
Paramesh H. Epidemiology of bronchial asthma in India. Indian J Pediatr. 2002;69:309-12.
Somasekhar AR, Paramesh H. Prevalence of under-diagnosed asthma in adolescents. Bangalore, India: Proceedings of XXXIX National Conference of Indian Academy of Pediatrics; 2002.
Chakravarthy SK, Singh RB, Swaminathan S, Venkatesan P. Prevalence of bronchial asthma in urban and rural children in Tamil Nadu, India. Natl Med J. 2002;15:260-3.
Subbarao P, Mandhane JP, Sears MR. Asthma: epidemiology, etiology and risk factors. CMAJ. 2009;181(9):181-90.
Aggarwal AN, Chaudhry SK, Chhabra SK, D’souza GA, Gupta D, Jindal SK, et al. Prevalence and risk factors for bronchial asthma in Indian adults: a multicentre study. Indian J Chest Dis Allied Sci. 2006;48(1):13-22.
Chowgule RV, Shetye VM, Parmar JR, Bhosale AM, Khandagale MR, Phalnitkar SV, et al. Prevalence of respiratory symptoms, bronchial hyperreactivity, and asthma in a mega city. Results of the European community respiratory health survey in Mumbai (Bombay). Am J Respire Crit Care Med. 1998;158(2):547-54.
Morbidity and Health Care International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) and Macro International. National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) 2005-06: India. Mumbai: IIPS; 2007: 423.
Behl RK, Kashyap S, Sarkar M. Prevalence of bronchial asthma in school children of 6-13 years of age in Shimla city. Indian J Chest Dis Allied Sci. 2010;52(3):148-8.
Narayana PP, Prasanna MP, Narahari SR, Guruprasad AM. Prevalence of asthma in school children in rural India. Ann Thorac Med. 2010;5(2):118-9.
Jain A, Bhat AV, Acharya D. Prevalence of Bronchial Asthma in Rural Indian children: a cross sectional study from South India. Indian J Pediatr. 2010;77:31-5.
Awasthi S, Kalra E, Roy S, Awasthi S. Prevalence and risk factors of asthma and wheeze in school-going children in Lucknow, North India. Indian Pediatr. 2004;41(17):1205-9.
Hasnain SM, Khan M, Saleem A, Waqar MA. Prevalence of asthma and allergic rhinitis among school children of Karachi, Pakistan, 2007. J Asthma. 2009;46(1):86-90.
