Ghulam Mustafa, Pervez Akber Khan, Imran Iqbal, Muhammad Nasir, Yasir Aziz.
Severe asthma in school children of South Punjab, Pakistan.
Pak Paed J Jan ;34(4):188-93.

Aims: To find out the prevalence of severe asthma, as reported by the parents, in school children of South Punjab, Pakistan. Methods: It was a cross sectional, questionnaire based, descriptive survey of the children aged 3-18 years, in randomly selected primary and secondary schools, from October 2002 to March 2003. The data then were analyzed by the statistician with Statistical Analysis System (SAS). Results: Of 6120 questionnaire sent to the parents/guardians, 3180 (52%) were returned. Of the 3180 respondents, 1767(56%) were for boys and 1413(44%) were for girls. The median age was 8.25 years (mean age: 8.86 years). Around 71% of children were between 4 to 11 years of age. The parents reported emergency visits to hospitals or doctors for treatment of wheeze in 114(3.5%) of their children. Of this 114 children with emergency visits to the hospitals or doctors for the treatment of wheeze, 66 (58%) were boys and 48(42%) were girls. Of the 1767 boys, the severe asthma reported by parents was 3.7% (66). Of the 1413 girls, the severe asthma reported by parents was 3.4% (48). There was only one boy reported to be taken to the hospital for severe asthma in 14-18 years age group. Conclusion: The severe asthma is a non-quantified entity with many economic implications. Sufficient resources need to be allocated to tackle the present burden promptly and efficiently in our emergency departments. It would be better to plan preventive strategies to decrease the present burden of severe asthma.

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