Epidemiological investigation of asthma in children aged 0-14 years in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Baotou urban

Abstract

Objective To realize the asthma prevalence, the variation trend, and the influencing factors for it in children living in Baotou district, and the impact on the sick children, their families and the society. Methods According to unified national survey method which was established by the National Pediatric Cooperation Group on Asthma Research, the investigation was conducted. Results 1.All of 11 398 children aged 0-14 years were surveyed, and among them, 11 323 were examined actually and the response rate was 99.34%.One hundred and twenty-one were diagnosed as asthma, the total prevalence was 1.07%(121/11 323 cases, 95%CI: 0.88-1.26), 6 cases of cough variant asthma (0.05%, 6/11 323 cases, 95%CI: 0.01-0.09), 24 cases of questionable asthma(0.21%, 24/11 323 cases, 95%CI: 0.13-0.29). The prevalence cases were 96 cases from 2009 to 2010, and the prevalence rate was 0.85%(96/11 323 cases, 95%CI: 0.68-1.02). The prevalence rates of the children with asthma in Baotou in 1990, 2000 and 2010 were 0.55%, 0.88% and 1.07%, respectively, increasing 60.0% and 21.6% per 10 years respectively, increased by 1.7-2.0 times during the 20 years.2.Asthma occurred the lowest in children aged 0-3 years, the highest prevalence was at the age of 4-10 years, and the prevalence of children more than 10 years old was gradually redu-cing.3.The main cause of the predisposing factors was the upper respiratory infection(78.5%, 95/121 cases).4.The first attack age was 39.7% in children at less than 3 years old, and the age of the first attack was more in line with the first diagnosis age after 3 years old.5.Dangerous factors affecting children's asthma were the family history of allergies, the anaphylactic rhinitis, the chronic cough, and the recurrent respiratory tract infection and so on.6.The application of the systemic corticosteroid drug decreased from 60.2% in 2000 to 27.2% in 2010, and the inhaled corticosteroids went up to 85.1% in 2010 from 13.6% in 2000.No case from the surveyed children failed to go up to the higher grade or drop out of school, there was no influence in the main sports activities for the 81.9% (86/105 cases) asthma children, for the family members of children, no one was absence of duty more than 60 days a year, or absentee year in year out, because of taking their children to see doctors for asthma, and only 2.5% (31/121 cases) family could not bear the economic burden of treatment. Conclusions There is an increasing trend of asthma prevalence.The predisposing factor is mainly respiratory tract infection.The dangerous factors for children's asthma are the chronic cough, the recurrent respiratory tract infection, the family history of allergies, the anaphylactic rhinitis and so on. Key words: Epidemiological investigation; Asthma; Baotou city; Child