Prevalence of asthma in children and adolescents in a city in the Brazilian Amazon region.
OBJECTIVE
To analyze the prevalence of asthma and asthma symptoms in students of two distinct age brackets residing in the city of Tangará da Serra, Brazil.


METHODS
Cross-sectional, population-based study of the prevalence of asthma in children from 6 to 7 years of age and adolescents from 13 to 14, using the standardized International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood, phase 1 questionnaire, validated for use in Brazil. Students who responded affirmatively to question 2 (presence of wheezing in the preceding 12 months) were classified as suffering from asthma.


RESULTS
The study comprised 3,362 students, of whom 1,634 (48.6%) were children and 1,728 (51.4%) were adolescents. Of the 1,634 children, 816 (49.9%) were male, and 818 (50.1%) were female. Of the 1,728 adolescents, 773 (45.0%) were male, and 955 (55.0%) were female. The prevalence of asthma among the children was 25.2%, whereas that among the adolescents was 15.9% (chi2 = 8.34; p = 0.00). The children presented higher prevalences of the following symptoms of asthma than did the adolescents: wheezing ever (54.3%), nocturnal dry cough (43.9%), wheezing in the preceding 12 months (25.2%), and from 1 to 3 attacks of wheezing in the preceding 12 months (19.1%). There were no differences between the two groups regarding physician-diagnosed asthma (approximately 4.5%). There were no statistical differences regarding the prevalence of asthma by gender in the two groups.


CONCLUSIONS
Tangará da Serra has a high prevalence of asthma in children and adolescents, and this result is compatible with other studies carried out in Brazil and Latin America using the same methodology.
Rosa
Antonia Maria
AM
Universidade do Estado de Mato Grosso, Cáceres, MT, Brazil. antonia-mr@unemat.br
Ignotti
Eliane
E
Hacon
Sandra de Souza
Sde S
Castro
Hermano Albuquerque de
HA
D000293:Adolescent; D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012135:Respiratory Sounds / Q000175:diagnosis