Naheem Ahmed, Waseem Lehrasab, Rashada Bibi.
Morbidity Patterns in Asthmatic Children Presenting to a Tertiary Care Setting.
Ann Pak Inst Med Sci Jan ;11(2):100-4.

Objective: To study the morbidity pattern in school aged children with reactive airway disease. Place and Duration: It was conducted at the department of Pediatric Medicine, Children Hospital, PIMS, Islamabad from January 2013 to December 2013. Study Design: A descriptive case series study. Materials and Methods: A total number of 60 children were enrolled. The age range was 3 to 12 years. All diagnosed asthmatic children who were getting treatment for asthma for last one year coming to the Children Hospital were included in study. The study outcome was morbidity patterns caused by asthma in term of night time symptoms, absence from school, hospital visits and admissions. Results: The mean age of patients was 7.2 years. There were 29 (48.3%) males. The night symptoms such as cough was present in 57 (95.0%) patients, 41 (68.3%) patients experienced breathing difficulty and 33 (55.0%) had disturbed sleep at night. Of total, 29 (48.3%) patients had <2 missed school days per month, 10 (16.7%) reported that they had to have <5 missed school days per month whereas 6 (10.0%) had more than 5 missed school days per months due to asthma. Due to asthmatic symptoms, 16 (26.7%) patients visited A&E for > 2 times per month. Meanwhile 23 (38.3%) had <2 admissions per month. About 27 (45.0%) patients did not participated in games due to asthma. Similarly, 27 (45.0%) patients had a chest deformity, predominantly barrel shaped deformity was present in 23 (38.3%) Conclusion: The asthma is a major cause of morbidity in our local paediatric population. The night time symptoms were present in all study cases where as many frequently visited emergency department and at times hospitalized due to acute exacerbations.

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