الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Bronchial asthma is a leading cause of chronic illness in childhood being with allergic rhinitis is the most frequent childhood chronic diseases. The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of bronchial asthma and other allergic diseases in school children aged 6-15 years in El Fayoum governorate, and to reveal some epidemiological features of children with bronchial asthma. This was achieved through written questionnaire obtained from those students. Students included in our study were 1478 (776 were males and 702 were females). The age of students ranged from 6-15 years with mean age of 11.3 years .the studied students were classified into 2 groups: · Age group (1): from 6-11 years were 755 students representing 51% . · Age group (2): from 12-15 years were 723 students representing 49%. All students were given a written questionnaire including personal data (name, age, sex, social and environmental conditions) history as regard asthma and other atopic diseases and history of breast feeding. Our results showed that: · 224 (15.2%) of the studied students were asthmatic (more than one attack of wheeze in the last 12 months). · 253 (17.1%) of the studied students have asthma symptoms. Summary and Conclusion 98 · 229 (15.5%) of the studied students have doctordiagnosed symptoms. · 236 (16%) of the studied students have allergic conjunctivitis. · 348 (23.5%) of the studied students have allergic rhinitis. · 169 (11.4%) of the studied students have atopic dermatitis. There was a significant increase of asthma symptoms among students exposed to environmental tobacco smoke, students with family history of allergy, students living with animals in the house, and students who were artificially fed. There was significant increase of bronchial asthma, allergic rhinitis and among urban students compared to rural students. In allergic conjunctivitis and atopic dermatitis no significant difference between urban and rural students. The study found that there was no statistical significant difference between prevalence of asthma symptoms and sex (p>0.05) It was also found that there was no statistical significant difference between two age groups as regard prevalence of asthma symptoms (p>0.05) On the other hand, there was no relation between the socioeconomic status of the family, crowding index, exposure to nearby air pollution and prevalence of asthma symptoms. There was a seasonal variation for exacerbation of asthma with peak incidence in winter. Summary and Conclusion 99 The study also found that there is under treatment of bronchial asthma. Only 21.7% of the asthmatic students take regular preventive treatment. This may be due to non compliance to medication which may be due to defective health education. |