PREVALENCE OF ASTHMA AMONG SAUDI SCHOOLCHILDREN

The aim of this paper was to study the prevalence of asthma among Saudi schoolchildren aged 7-12 years. A cross-sectional study of 3300 schoolchildren living in three different regions of Saudi Arabia (average 9.32 years, 56% boys and 44% girls) was conducted between January 1986 and January 1990. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect details of age, sex, area of residence, occupation, education level of parents, asthma, hay fever, cough, wheezing, exposure to pets and animals, parental smoking, and parental history of asthma. The results showed that children with wheezes occur more commonly in Jeddah with 12.6%, Riyadh with 11.9% and Dammam with 6.6%. The frequency of hay fever is significantly more common in each area than wheeze, but once again is most common in Jeddah, with up to 24% of the children complaining of nasal symptoms compared with 17% in Riyadh and 12.1 % in Dammam. A very clear family history of asthma is reported countrywide in that 35.9% of wheezy children have a mother with asthma and 40.7% of these children have fathers with asthma. This contrasts with 8.6% of non-wheezy children with either parent with asthma. A similar pattern is seen with hay fever symptoms with 27.1% of wheezy children having a mother with hay fever symptoms and 22.8% of fathers, compared with 9% of non-wheezy children with either parent with hay fever symptoms

PASSIVE SMOKING EFFECTS ON WHEEZY BRONCHITIS

Previous epidemiological studies have associated parental smoking with an increased incidence of lower respiratory illness and bronchial asthma. The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between parental smoking habits and diagnosed wheezy bronchitis in schoolchildren in Saudi Arabia. In a cross-sectional study 3,041 schoolchildren ages seven to 12 years were randomly selected in Dammam, Jeddah, and Riyadh, representing three different geoclimatic regions of Saudi Arabia. Standardized questionnaires were used in our study. The results showed that paternal smoking had a significant effect on the frequency of wheezing when paternal and maternal smoking were considered separately. There was no considerable variation in the parental smoking habits in three areas. The association between passive smoking and diagnosed wheezy bronchitis and frequency of wheezing attacks was highly significant (P<0.0001). Overall, the results tend to confirm that there is a real effect of passive smoking on the respiratory health of children and that parental smoking is a risk factor for wheezy bronchitis in children