Birth weight, lung function testing in school aged children from rural and urban areas

Abstract

The European Commission, funded multidiciplinary project (SINPHONIE) carried in 114 primary schools in 23 European countries in winter season 2011/2012. The aim was to measure indoors and outdors air-quality and their health-related effects. In our country study involved 5 schools (3 in urban area, 2 in rural area), about 300 schoolchildren aged 7 to 10 years. The study protocol included:complex questionnaires derived from the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood; school environmental assessments; and lung functionl tests in all pupils.The selected schools were in urban and rural. In data processing we investigated correlation between parent-reported birth weight (first group- birth weight between 2500 g and 3000 g, second group-birth weight >3000 g) and children lung function (FEV1, FVC,FEF(25-75). We examined the association between number of children in family and pulmonary function, assuming that more children in family (2 to 4 children in our study) is associated with respiratory infections in children.We also distribute children in two groups, regarding where they live urban or rural area. Results: There was no statisticaly significant correlation between birth weight and children lung function by Pearsons Correlation test. There is also no significant correlation between number of children in family and pulmonary function, by Spearman9s correlation test. Conclusions: In our stady there was no statisticaly signifficant correlation between birth weight and childrens9 lung function, there was no signifficant correlation between number of children in family and lung function. No difference was found between children in urban and rural area following this criteria.