Abstract
BackgroundThere are limited data on the epidemiology of allergic disorders in Saudi Arabia. Such data are needed for, amongst other things, helping to plan service provision at a time when there is considerable investment taking place in national healthcare development. We sought to estimate the prevalence of atopic eczema, allergic rhinitis and asthma in primary school children in Madinah, Saudi Arabia.Methods and FindingsWe conducted a two-stage cross-sectional survey of schoolchildren in Madinah. Children were recruited from 38 randomly selected schools. Questionnaires were sent to the parents of all 6,139 6–8 year old children in these schools. These parental-completed questionnaires incorporated questions from the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC), which had previously been validated for use in Arab populations. We undertook descriptive analyses, using the Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) to calculate 95% confidence intervals. The overall response rate was 85.9% (n = 5,188), 84.6% for girls and 86.2% for boys, respectively. Overall, parents reported symptoms suggestive of a history of eczema in 10.3% (95%CI 9.4, 11.4), rhinitis in 24.2% (95%CI 22.3, 26.2) and asthma in 23.6% (95%CI 21.3, 26.0) of children. Overall, 41.7% (95%CI 39.1, 44.4) of children had symptoms suggestive of at least one allergic disorder, with a substantial minority manifesting symptoms indicative of co-morbid allergic disease. Comparison of these symptom-based prevalence estimates with reports of clinician-diagnosed disease suggested that the majority of children with eczema and asthma had been diagnosed, but only a minority (17.4%) of children had been diagnosed with rhinitis. International comparisons indicated that children in Madinah have amongst the highest prevalence of allergic problems in the world.ConclusionsSymptoms indicative of allergic disease are very common in primary school-aged children in Madinah, Saudi Arabia, with figures comparable to the highest risk regions in the world.
Highlights
The incidence and prevalence of allergic disorders has increased considerably in recent decades, so much so that allergic disorders are amongst the most common chronic disorders of childhood [1]
Symptoms indicative of allergic disease are very common in primary school-aged children in Madinah, Saudi Arabia, with figures comparable to the highest risk regions in the world
Whilst major international epidemiological studies such as the International Study of Asthma and Allergy in Childhood (ISAAC) [2,3] and the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS) [4] have greatly increased our understanding of allergic disease prevalence in many parts of the world, there remains a dearth of epidemiological data in relation to much of the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia
Summary
The incidence and prevalence of allergic disorders has increased considerably in recent decades, so much so that allergic disorders are amongst the most common chronic disorders of childhood [1]. The limited available data in Saudi Arabia on allergic disorders are largely confined to asthma, with studies indicating that the prevalence in Saudi Arabia varies anywhere between 8–15% in children [6,7]. These studies are, relatively small-scale, are affected by methodological limitations such as the failure to make due adjustments for clustered sampling when estimating confidence intervals (CI), and are somewhat dated. We sought to estimate the prevalence of atopic eczema, allergic rhinitis and asthma in primary school children in Madinah, Saudi Arabia
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