Clinical and epidemiological characteristics of the most common allergy diseases in children

Abstract

Background. Allergic diseases (bronchial asthma, allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis, food allergy, acute urticaria, insect allergy) are disabling life-threatening conditions and are a cause of worldwide concern. Objective: to determine the prevalence of allergy symptoms in children and to evaluate the modern level of allergic diseases diagnosis in our country on the example of Kyiv region. Materials and methods. 1011 children from 4 age groups were surveyed: group I — 305 patients (aged 1 month — 4 years), group II — 254 children (6–7 years), group III — 254 persons (13–14 years), group IV — 198 children (15–17 years). Results. Quite high prevalence of bronchial asthma, allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis, food allergy, acute urticaria and insect allergy were received. At the same time, significantly low levels of diagnosing these diseases (e.g. asthma) were revealed. Despite the significant incidence of wheezing (more than 3 times in the past year of life), children from all age ca­tegories have reliably low diagnosis level of asthma (p = 0.000), especially those under 4 years of age. According to received results, the food allergy manifestations (i.e. acute urticaria and angioedema) are being detected more and more often in younger age. Conclusions. The level of diagnosing allergic diseases, particularly asthma, remains low in Ukraine, especially in children under 4 years.

Keywords

• allergic diseases
• bronchial asthma
• allergic rhinitis
• atopic dermatitis
• food allergy
• prevalence
• epidemiological characteristics