Prevalence of Allergic Disease and Asthma Related Conditions in Primary School-Aged Children and Comparison of Pulmonary Function Test between Normal and Children with Condition Related with Asthma

Son, Byong Kwan; Lim, Dae Hyun; Kim, Jeong Hee; Jun, Yong Hoon; Kim, Soon Ki

Abstract

PURPOSE
The prevalence of allergic diseases, including bronchial asthma, increases markedly to make those disease as one of the most important and common disease in pediatric field. As the basic data for managing patients with allergic diseases, we tried to get prevalence of allergic disease and comparison the normal children with the ones related with allergic diseases in primary school-aged children.
RESULTS
1) 1637(57.4%) children among total 2850 children had the history of allergic disease. 2) The most frequent allergic disease was atopic dermatitis(38.9%) followed by urticaria (26.4%), bronchial asthma(10.3%), and allergic rhinitis(8.8%). 3) Among family members of children with allergic disease, mother had allergic disease most frequently(31.1%) followed by father(25.1%), siblings(24.4%), and grandparents(13.9%). 4) 1528(53.6%) children had the symptoms suggesting bronchial asthma. Among them frequent upper respiratory infection was the most frequent complaints(75.6%), followed by history of some weak bronchi(45.4%), having sinusitis(24.2%), and reluctant to do sports(11.7%). 5) 76% of children had the smoker in the house. Father was the most frequent smoker(94.1%), followed by grandparents(13.9%), and mother was only 1.6%. 6) The total number of cigarettes smoked in the house was less than 20 in 89%. 7) The crowdedness of the house, got by the number of family members divided by the number of rooms, was less than 3 in 85.9% of the children. It was more than 5 in 28 children's house. 8) Non of the items of pulmonary function test was consistent in any asthma related conditions when we compare with normal children. Only crowdedness shows statistically significant difference in FVC, FEV(1), and PEFR.