title: Awareness regarding childhood asthma in Saudi Arabia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Assessing the knowledge and awareness of the Saudi society about bronchial asthma in children.
  
  
  METHODS
  Structured questionnaires were randomly distributed to 1039 Saudi Arabians in May 2014 at Jeddah, Riyadh, and Dammam.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The awareness of bronchial asthma questions showed that 67% of total sample thought that it could be a fatal disease, and only 13.2% thought that there is a difference between bronchial asthma and chest allergies in children. 86.1% thought that the symptoms of bronchial asthma include dyspnea and nocturnal cough, and 45.7% thought that fever, a runny nose and throat inflammation are not symptoms. 60.2% thought that infectious respiratory diseases may increase bronchial asthma progression. In addition, 40% thought that the use of antibiotics doesn't help in diminishing bronchial asthma complications, and some thought that the patient can stop medication after an acute asthma attack. 34.1% thought that inhaled medication for asthma doesn't cause addiction. Very highly significant results are shown between bronchial asthma knowledge and age, the level of education, marital status, and if the individual knows a person who suffers from bronchial asthma (P < 0.001). There are positive correlations between bronchial asthma knowledge and age, marital status, and level of education (r = 0.152, 0.150, 0.197), respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study demonstrated that bronchial asthma knowledge in the Saudi Arabian population is insufficient, and efforts should be carried out to spread bronchial asthma management.
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Consultant Pediatric Pulmonologist, Umm Al-Qura University, Mecca, KSA.
authors.forename: Saleh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Al-Harbi
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine, Prince Sultan Military Medical City, Ministry of Defence, Riyadh, KSA.
authors.forename: Adel S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Al-Harbi
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine, Prince Sultan Military Medical City, Ministry of Defence, Riyadh, KSA.
authors.forename: Abdullah
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Al-Khorayyef
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine, Prince Sultan Military Medical City, Ministry of Defence, Riyadh, KSA.
authors.forename: Mansour
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Al-Qwaiee
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric, King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, KSA.
authors.forename: Abdullah
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Al-Shamarani
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric, Children & Maternity Hospital, Riyadh, KSA.
authors.forename: Wafa
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Al-Aslani
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric, King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah, KSA.
authors.forename: Hayat
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kamfar
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric, King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah, KSA.
authors.forename: Osama
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Felemban
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric, Dr. Soliman Fakeeh Hospital, Jeddah, KSA.
authors.forename: Mohammed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Barzanji
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, King Saud University Hospital, Riyadh, KSA.
authors.forename: Naser
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Al-Harbi
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, KSA.
authors.forename: Ruqaia
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dhabab
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric, King Fahad University Hospital, Dammam, KSA.
authors.forename: Mohammed Ahmed
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Al-Omari
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric, King Fahad University Hospital, Dammam, KSA.
authors.forename: Abdullah
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yousef
keywords: Awareness; Saudi Arabia; bronchial asthma; children