Prevalence of Allergy and Risk Factors in Nursery Children

Abstract

Allergy is an important health problem in preschool children and its prevalence is increasing. Allergy is especially common in nursery and preschool children. There is limited data on allergy epidemiology in children in Türkiye. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of allergy in nursery children and to determine the risk factors that lead to allergies. The descriptive cross-sectional field study was carried out between 01.11.2017 and 01.05.2018 in the nurseries in Yozgat City Center. The study was conducted with the parents of 320 children who continued nursery education between the specified dates. The data were obtained by a 35-question information form prepared by the researchers. The mean age of the children was 4.7±0.95 and 56.25% (180/320) were male. A family history of asthma or disease with appearance of allergic symptoms, history of upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) in the first two years of life and having pets at home were significantly more common in the group with allergic sensitivity compared to the group without allergic sensitivity (p<0.05). It was determined that 14.7% of the children were diagnosed by the physician, 38.3% (18/47) of these diagnoses were urticaria, 31.9% (15/47) were allergic asthma, 19.1% (9/47) were atopic dermatitis-eczema, and 10.6% (5/47) were allergic rhinitis. According to the results of this study, it was found that children with allergic sensitivity had a history of asthma or atopic disease in their families, experienced allergic symptoms frequently, and frequently had URTI until the age of two.