Vol. 5, Issue 1, Part D (2019)

Background and Objectives: Childhood asthma is a major clinical concern worldwide and represents a huge burden on families and societies. According to WHO, asthma is the most common chronic disease in children and is recognized as a disease of major public health importance. The prevalence of asthma symptoms varies from 1.6% to 36.8%. Asthma remains under-diagnosed in general practice and hence a more active approach to the detection and assessment of asthma is called for. With this background the present study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of childhood asthma in rural school children of Chandrapur district in Maharashtra.

Methods: The sample comprised of 905 school children. Information was collected by interview technique, using predesigned and pretested proforma based on ISAAC questionnaire from children in class V-X and from parents of children in class I-IV after obtaining informed consent. Asthma was diagnosed on the basis of scores obtained in ISSAC questionnaire. Score 5 was diagnostic for students 10 years and score 6 was diagnostic for students 10 years.

Results: Out of 905 school children, 539 (59.6%) were boys and 366 (40.4%) were girls. Mean age of school children was 11.06 ± 3.08 yrs (5 yrs -19 yrs). Prevalence of childhood asthma based on ISAAC Questionnaire was 9.94%. It was 11.31% in males while 7.92% in females. (P= 0.09).

Conclusion: The prevalence of childhood asthma among rural school children is quite high.