Epidemiological survey of unexplained syncope morbidity in middle and elementary school students in Changsha city

Abstract

Objective To explore unexplained syncope(UPS) morbidity of elementary and middle school students in Changsha city. Methods Four thousand two hundred and fifteen students aged 5 to 18 years from six full-time elementary or middle schools were randomly selected and the survey was conducted by giving them 4 215 copies of questionnaires and they were categorized into 3 groups: key school group(n=1 062), normal school group(n=1 310) and peasant laborer dependent's school group(n=1 349). Three thousand seven hundred and twenty-one copies of returning questionnaires(88.28%) were collected. Results 1.Morbidity: among 3 721 students there were 738 students(19.83%) who had once or more symptom of UPS.And the morbidity of middle school students was higher than elementary school students(28.87% vs 7.96%, χ2=252.11, P 0.05) and the total secondary school students(male 18.67% vs female 21.12%, χ2=3.51, P>0.05), there was no significant diffe-rence between genders. Conclusions The UPS morbidity of students in Changsha is 19.83%.There are differences in age, school and gender. Key words: Unexplained syncope; Morbidity; Middle school student; Elementary school student