scholarly journals Prevalence of asthma, its correlates, and validation of the Pre-School Asthma Risk Factors Scale (PS-ARFS) among preschool children in Lebanon

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-49
Author(s):  
Souheil Hallit ◽  
Hala Sacre ◽  
Nelly Kheir ◽  
Rabih Hallit ◽  
Mirna Waked ◽  
...  

Objectives: The Asthma Risk Factor Scale (ARFS) is used to screen for asthma in Lebanese pre-school children (aged 3–16 years). The study objective was to describe factors associated with asthma, confirm ARFS score validity among Lebanese preschool children, and develop a risk score for asthma diagnosis in this age group (Pre-School Asthma Risk Factor Scale [PS-ARFS]). Methods: A cross-sectional study enrolled 515 preschool children (November 2018 and March 2019). The ARFS is a 15-item tool that assesses children’s environmental exposure, parental history of asthma, and dietary habits.Results: The percentage of asthmatic children was 8.2%. Higher odds of asthma in children were associated with living near a prairie sprayed with pesticides (odds ratio [OR] = 2.33), playing out-doors (OR = 2.89), having a heater in the bedroom (OR = 10.73), attending a nursery (OR = 2.91), having a mother who smokes cigarettes (OR = 3.35) or water pipe (OR = 2.46), a sister with a history of seasonal allergy (OR = 6.81), and a parental history (mother and father) of asthma (OR = 6.15 and OR = 9.83, respectively). Higher ARFS scores (OR = 1.144) were associated with higher odds of asthma. Accordingly, the PS-ARFS was created according to the following formula: ARFS score + (playing out-door × 2.4) + (heating system in the bedroom × 12.9) + (having attended a nursery × 2.5) (area under the curve = 0.908 [0.860–0.957]; P < 0.001); at value: 14.20, Se = 84.3% and Sp = 90.9%.Conclusion: PS-ARFS is suggested for screening of asthma in preschool children in an epidemiological setting and in the absence of spirometry.

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-145
Author(s):  
Souheil Hallit ◽  
Hala Sacre ◽  
Nelly Kheir ◽  
Eva Hobeika ◽  
Rabih Hallit ◽  
...  

Objectives: To validate a scale to assess the hygiene hypothesis and the association between hygiene and asthma among Lebanese preschool children aged 3–5 years. Methods: This cross-sectional study, conducted between November 2018 and March 2019, enrolled 515 preschool children. Asthma and potential risk factors, including hygiene, were assessed using a standardized questionnaire. A specific hygiene hypothesis scale has been gen-erated and validated for this purpose. Results: The hygiene hypothesis scale items converged over a solution of nine factors that had an Eigenvalue over 1, explaining a total of 65.86% of the variance. An acceptable Cronbach’s alpha value was recorded for the hygiene hypothesis scale (0.696). Variables correlated with higher odds of asthma were male gender (ORa = 0.41 for females), living near a prairie sprayed with pesticides (ORa = 3.09), having a heating system in the bedroom compared to the sitting room (ORa = 9.97), attending kindergarten (ORa = 2.80), having a mother who smokes water-pipe compared to not smoking (ORa = 3.34), having a mother with a history of asthma (ORa = 5.50), and having respiratory infections (ORa = 14.72). However, the hygiene hypothesis score was not associated with higher odds of asthma (p = 0.881). Conclusions: The current results suggested that neither home cleaning nor personal cleanliness was correlated with asthma in preschool children. Larger prospective studies that measure the intensity and duration of exposure to each toxicant are suggested to better assess the hygiene hypothesis items and their association with asthma.


2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Murti Andriastuti ◽  
Sudigdo Sastroasmoro ◽  
Agus Firmansyah

Background Morbidity and mortality of coronary heart disease(CHD) are recently increasing. This is related to changes in lifestyle,such as lack of activity and high consumption of fatty diet. Themain cause of CHD is atherosclerosis. The development of ath-erosclerosis takes a long time, is asymptomatic, and might beginin childhood. The important risk factors that have roles in increas-ing the likelihood of atherosclerosis are family history of prematureCHD, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, obesity, smoking and irregu-lar activity.Objective The aim of this study was to find out the prevalence ofCHD risk factors in children and young adults who had parentalhistory of premature CHD.Methods This was a descriptive cross sectional study conductedon offspring of premature CHD patients who were admitted in theintensive cardiology care unit (ICCU) of Cipto MangunkusumoHospital between January 1999 to December 2001 and of prema-ture CHD patients who visited the Cardiology Clinic of the Depart-ment of Internal Medicine, Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital duringMarch and April 2002. Subjects were aged 12 to 25 year-old.Results Among the subjects, 40% had hyperlipidemia, 8% hadhypertension, 11% were obese, 21% were active smokers, 41%were passive smokers, and 73% had irregular activity. Ninety-sevenpercents subjects had more than 1 risk factors.Conclusions The prevalence of hyperlipidemia, hypertension,obesity, passive smoker, active smoker and irregular activity inchildren and young adults with parental history of premature CHDin this study were higher than those in the normal population.Most had more than 1 risk factor, increasing the likelihood of CHD.A screening test should be performed on children with parentalhistory of premature CHD so that early preventive measures mightbe done to minimize the risk factors


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xueping Zhu ◽  
Weichang Chen ◽  
Xiaoli Zhu ◽  
Yueping Shen

To determine the prevalence and risk factors of IBS in children 8–13 years of age in Suzhou city, a cross-sectional study was conducted on children in grades 1 through 6 in public elementary schools in three districts of Suzhou. A multistage stratified random-sampling survey was conducted in a primary investigation using standardized questionnaires. Rome II criteria were used to confirm IBS and their risk factors were analyzed. Of 8,000 questionnaires 7,472 responded satisfactorily for a response rate of 93.4%. IBS was diagnosed in 10.81%. A decrease in the prevalence of IBS was significantly associated with advancing age and grade in school (trend test,P<0.05). The prevalence of IBS in females was higher but not significantly different than males. The significant risk factors for IBS included young age (OR = 0.94), food allergy (OR = 1.53), gastroenteritis during childhood (OR = 1.29), eating fried food (OR = 1.62), anxiety (OR = 1.49), psychological insults in early childhood (OR = 1.47), and parental history of constipation (OR = 1.81; allP<0.05). IBS prevalence of 10.81% in study population warrants preventive measures such as encouraging dietary changes, preventing gastroenteritis and childhood psychological insults.


2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. 2040-2045 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kozue Nakamura ◽  
Keiko Wada ◽  
Yukari Sahashi ◽  
Yuya Tamai ◽  
Michiko Tsuji ◽  
...  

AbstractObjectiveIncreasing childhood asthma rates may be due to changing dietary lifestyle. We investigated the association of dietary intake of antioxidant vitamins and fatty acids with asthma in Japanese pre-school children.DesignCross-sectional study.SettingSchool-based survey on lifestyle/diet and health status in children in Japan.SubjectsParents of 452 children aged 3–6 years completed a questionnaire on the children's and parents’ lifestyle and demographics. Children were classified into asthma cases and non-asthma cases in accordance with the ATS-DLD (American Thoracic Society and Division of Lung Diseases of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute) questionnaire. Children's diet was assessed using a 3 d dietary record completed by parents. Children's age, sex, BMI, history of food allergy, maternal age, parental history of allergy, maternal education, family size and second-hand smoking were included as covariates. Logistic regression models were used to examine the association between children's diet and asthma.ResultsCompared with children with the lowest intake tertile for vitamin C and vitamin E, those in the highest were significantly inversely associated with asthma; adjusted OR (95 % CI) were 0·35 (0·14, 0·88) and 0·32 (0·12, 0·85), respectively. A statistically significant trend was also observed. Fruit intake showed an inverse but insignificant association with asthma. There were no associations of any type of fatty acids with asthma.ConclusionsThese data suggest that children with high intakes of vitamins C and E may be associated with a reduced prevalence of asthma.


Author(s):  
A.C. Nutaitis ◽  
S.D. Tharwani ◽  
M.C. Serra ◽  
F.C. Goldstein ◽  
L. Zhao ◽  
...  

Background: African Americans (AA) are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease (AD) than Caucasians (CC). Dietary modification may have the potential to reduce the risk of developing AD. Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between Southern and Prudent diet patterns and cognitive performance in individuals at risk for developing AD. Design: Cross-sectional observational study. Participants: Sixty-six cognitively normal AA and CC individuals aged 46-77 years with a parental history of AD were enrolled. Measurements: Participants completed a Food Frequency questionnaire, cognitive function testing, which consisted of 8 neuropsychological tests, and cardiovascular risk factor assessments, including evaluation of microvascular and macrovascular function and ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. Results: Results revealed a relationship between the Southern diet and worse cognitive performance among AAs. AAs who consumed pies, mashed potatoes, tea, and sugar drinks showed worse cognitive performance (p<0.05) compared with CCs. In addition, gravy (p=0.06) and cooking oil/fat (p=0.06) showed negative trends with cognitive performance in AAs. In both CC and AA adults, greater adherence to a Prudent dietary pattern was associated with better cognitive outcomes. Cardiovascular results show that participants are overall healthy. AAs and CCs did not differ on any vascular measure including BP, arterial stiffness and endothelial function. Conclusion: Research shows that dietary factors can associate with cognitive outcomes. This preliminary cross-sectional study suggests that foods characteristic of the Southern and Prudent diets may have differential effects on cognitive function in middle-aged individuals at high risk for AD. Results suggest that diet could be a non-pharmaceutical tool to reduce cognitive decline in racially diverse populations. It is possible that the increased prevalence of AD in AA could be partially reduced via diet modification.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 733
Author(s):  
Utkarsh Bansal ◽  
Aakash Raja ◽  
Prashant Agarwal ◽  
Ekansh Rathoria ◽  
Abhishek Gupta ◽  
...  

Background: Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs) are the major cause of mortality in the world. Reducing the incidence of CVDs has been a challenge due to the multifactorial risk profile of their origin. Among the non-modifiable risk factor for CVDs family history holds a lot of importance. Objective of the study was to study blood pressure, waist hip ratio and body mass index among adolescents and verify the possible the relation with a family history of cardiovascular disease.Methods: This is a cross-sectional study, which was conducted in 286 school children aged 10 to 19 years, of either sex, from Barabanki. After getting consent from school authorities, children and their parents, a detailed history was taken with a pre-designed proforma. Anthropometric and blood pressure measurements were taken.Results: In the presence of any risk factor of CVDs, 33.9% of the adolescents were overweight/obese, 45.8% had abdominal obesity, 26.3% had elevated systolic BP and 35.6% had elevated diastolic BP. The group with family history of CVDs had significantly higher number of adolescents with obesity and/or hypertension.Conclusions: The present studied showed an important association between family history of CVDs and blood pressure, waist hip ratio and body mass index in adolescents.


Author(s):  
M. Megala ◽  
S. Dhamodharan ◽  
M. Duraimurugan ◽  
K. Chellavel Ganapathi

Background: Refractive error is an avoidable cause of visual impairment. Children do not complain of defective vision. This warrants early detection and treatment. The study was conducted with the objective of estimating the prevalence of refractive error in school children and its associated factors.Methods: This was a cross sectional study conducted in schools of selected district in Tamil Nadu from July 2017 to January 2018. Sample size of 422 covered. A semi structured questionnaire was used to collect the details and also screened for refractive errors. Data was analysed using SPSS.Results: Among the 422 students screened, 86 (20.4%) had refractive error. The prevalence of refractive error showed significant association with age, education and occupation of parents, socio economic status, parental history of refractive error, duration of watching television and body mass index.Conclusions: Refractive errors among school children can be easily identified by regular eye screening programmes, promptly treated can be protected from future complications. Periodic screening of school children is very essential to improve the quality of eye-sight.


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