Armaghane Danesh Bimonthly Journal (Apr 2024)
The Relationship Between Asthma Risk Factors and Disease Severity in Children with Asthma Aged 7 to 12 Years
Abstract
Background & aim: Asthma is the most common chronic disease in children, the prevalence of which is steadily increasing all over the world. Five to ten percent of patients suffer from severe disease which leads to limitation in daily activities and sleep disorder as well as repeated attacks. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to determine and investigate the relationship between asthma risk factors and disease severity in children with asthma aged between 7 and 12 years of age. Methods: The present cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 200 asthmatic children aged 7-12 years of age referred to the Asthma and Allergy Clinics of Urmia University of Medical Sciences during 2019-2020 using a simple random sampling method. The data collection checklist included four sections; demographic information, birth, body mass index and asthma. According to the National Asthma of Australia, the severity of asthma was divided into three categories: mild, moderate and severe. Clinical symptoms included: shortness of breath, cough during day and at night, as well as daily symptoms were considered. Frequency of use of inhaled beta agonists were recorded. Forced expiratory volume was as well calculated. Collected data were analyzed using Kolmogorov-Smirnov, chi-square and Spearman tests. Results: The mean age of the participants was 8.8±2.1, 53.5% of children had mild asthma, 34.5% had moderate asthma, and 12% had severe asthma. There was a significant relationship between the severity of asthma and body mass index, age of birth and type of delivery in girls and boys with asthma (p>0.001). The most common clinical symptoms were cough (48.06%) and shortness of breath(9.95%) that 16.28% of these symptoms were reported during walking and at night and 13.83% on a daily basis. The use of inhaled beta agonist was reported in 32% of cases as less than 2 times a week. 53.5% of children had forced expiratory volume above 80%. Conclusion: Asthma severity is high among children with high body mass index and born by caesarean section, and correspondingly in children born prematurely, the severity of asthma was moderate or severe. Therefore, it is recommended to consider the mentioned factors in the clinical examinations of children and to consider methods to reduce obesity for obese children with asthma.
