PREVALENCE OF ASTHMA IN SCHOOL GOING CHILDREN OF URBAN AND SEMI-URBAN AREA

Introduction: A common chronic illness in school going children is asthma and its been reported that this illness goes mostly under-diagnosed and sometimes untreated. Objectives: It is estimated that among children that are school going under 8th standard in Punjabs urban areas asthma is prevailing. There are various factors that are associated to the illness in the study subjects. Material and methods: a cross sectional study was done among middle school children mostly between 7th and 8th standard in urban and semi urban areas. The questionnaire this study is based on was also used by ISAAC (International study of asthma and allergies in childhood). Results: Asthma diagnosed among 331 children and the questionnaire found it to be 13.9% in the study population. 87% of the patients was recently diagnosed with asthma. Various factors were found to be associated with the disease including allergy, family history of asthma, cough without cold and other significant factors. The prevalence ratio of both females and males was 1 male: 1.5 female. Conclusions: The results of this study are consistent with other studies which confirms that the prevalence of the disease is higher.