Prevalence of asthma in schoolchildren in Alta Floresta- a municipality in the southeast of the Brazilian Amazon.
OBJECTIVE
To analyze the prevalence and symptoms of asthma in students of the Brazilian Amazon municipality of Alta Floresta-MT.


METHODS
Cross-sectional study on the prevalence of asthma in 6 and 7 year-old children and 13 to 14 year-old adolescents, using the Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood - ISAAC method, phase I in 2007. Students who answered affirmatively question 2 - "presence of wheezing in the past 12 months" were considered asthmatic.


RESULTS
Of the total 2,071 students, 1,072 (51.7%) were children and 999 (48.3%) were teenagers. The prevalence of asthma was 21.4% among schoolchildren, and 12.4% among adolescents (chi2 = 29.29; rho = 0.00). Children presented a higher prevalence than adolescents of the following asthma symptoms: wheezing sometime in life (49.9%), wheezing in the past 12 months (21.4%), 1 to 3 wheezing attacks in the past 12 months (16.4%), and dry cough at night (38.2%). Regarding physician-diagnosed asthma, no difference was observed between the two age groups, with a prevalence of around 6.0%. Male schoolchildren presented a higher prevalence of asthma, physician-diagnosed asthma and four or more wheezing episodes in the past 12 months (rho < 0.05). Male adolescents presented the highest prevalence of strong wheezing affecting speech (rho < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Alta Floresta presents one of the highest prevalences of asthma in Latin America among schoolchildren in the 6 and 7 year-old age group.
de Farias
Márcia Regina de Col
MR
Departamento de Saúde Coletiva, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso.
Rosa
Antonia Maria
AM
Hacon
Sandra de Souza
Sde S
de Castro
Hermano Albuquerque
HA
Ignotti
Eliane
E
D000293:Adolescent; D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001938:Brazil; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires