Epidemiological investigation and risk factor analysis of childhood asthma in Dongguan area

Abstract

Objective To investigate the prevalence rate of asthma and explore the risk factors of asthma in children of Dongguan, and to provide epidemiological evidence for prevention and treatment of childhood asthma. Methods A cluster random sampling survey of 8 680 children aged 0 to 14 years from Dongguan was conducted to finish the standardized screening questionnaire for diagnosis of suspicious objects.Asthmatic patients and suspect cases were screened out for further examination.Case-control study and Logistic regression analysis were performed to analyze the association of asthma and risk factors. Results The total prevalence rate of asthma in children aged 0 to 14 from Dongguan was 3.27%, while prevalence ratio between male and female was 1.43︰1.00.Among asthmatic children, those aged 0 to 3 years and aged 6 to 11 years had the highest prevalence rates with 4.57% and 3.96%, respectively.Of the 284 cases, 141(49.6%) had their first asthma attack before the age of 3 years, 110(38.86%) suffered from asthma during periods of seasonal change, while 109(38.45%) had attacks with no obvious regularity of time, and 264(62.96%) suffered from asthma caused by respiratory tract infection.The case-control study and Logistic regression analysis of the 284 asthma cases and 284 healthy children showed that independent risk factors for asthma in children were as follows: family history of allergy(OR=0.586, 95%CI: 0.353-0.927), history of food allergies(OR=0.508, 95%CI: 0.306-0.843), eczema(OR=0.302, 95%CI: 0.163-0.561), urticarial(OR=0.292, 95%CI: 0.141-0.607), use of antibiotics during infants and young children periods(OR=0.377, 95%CI: 0.169-0.841), and the differences were all statistically significant(all P<0.001). Conclusions The total prevalence rate of asthma in children aged 0 to 14 from Dongguan was 3.27%, which was higher than the national level.Increasing children's resistance and preventing respiratory infection actively is an important way for the prevention and cure of asthma. Key words: Asthma; Epidemiological investigation; Risk factor; Child