Prevalence of bronchial asthma in rural Indian children: A cross sectional study from South India

Abstract

There is a high prevalence of bronchial asthma among children with a higher prevalence among boys than girls. There were significant inverse linear association with increasing age and also with family history of asthma. Efforts should be directed towards screening and early detection among the children, especially those of parents with history of asthma to enable treatment and reduce morbidity.

Prevalence of Asthma in School going Children of Semi-Urban Area in the State of Madhya Pradesh

“…4,15,17,20 The possible reason for the lower prevalence could be use of different definition for defining the prevalence, random selection of the samples, different sample size, different age group, different year of study, urbanization which could mean a number of lifestyle changes such as dietary habits, pollution, crowding etc. In contrast to other studies, 16,18,19,20 the present study shows female predominance (male: female asthma ratio-1:1.5) for the prevalence of asthma. This fact needs to be investigated with further studies.…”

“…A statistically significant association found between asthma and family history of asthma has also been documented by other studies. 11,14,16,18,20,21 A significant association was found between history of allergy and asthma in the present study. Similar findings has been reported in the study by Dhabadi et al 6 History of cough without cold was strongly associated with asthma by both multivariate and univariate analysis, which shows similarities with other studies.…”

“…Similar are the prevalence rates of asthma in school children in the study quoted by Chhabra et al 11 (15.7%) and in an another study by Mistry 17 ( 12.5%). Various studies on asthma in school children show variation in prevalence in rural and urban areas, 4,6,10,14,15,18,19 the prevalence being higher in urban children. This may be due to urban air pollution because of industries, automobiles, allergens etc.…”

Prevalence and Risk Factors of Asthma in School Going Children in South India

“…Data from Kerala during the ISSAC study reported a prevalence of 3.7% in 6 -7 year old and 4.5% in 13-14 yr old and children 10 . A study from south Karnataka among rural children aged 6-15 years reported a prevalence of 10.5% 11 . Another study from Bangalore revealed that the prevalence of asthma in children less than 18 years has increased steadily from 9% in 1979 to 29.5% in 1999 5 .…”

“…Burke et al reviewed 33 population based studies and have found out that family history of asthma was consistently identified as a risk factor for asthma 14 . A recent study from south Karnataka reported a linear association with increasing age and family history of asthma 11 . Our study also showed this association in children of both age groups.…”