Community Medicine Abstracts - College of Medicine and Health ...

Project No. 18 (1992)Prevalence of Asthma Among School Children of Al Yaher Area in Al Ain City,UAE, aged 6-14 yearsStudent Authors: Jamal Al-MutawaFaculty Supervisors: Prof. J. Anderson, Dr. H.H. HossainAbstract:Objective To find out the prevalence of asthma and to Assess factors and symptomsamong Al-Yahar school children 6-14 years, in Al Ain city, UAE.Design A self administered questionnaire on asthma risk factors and symptoms wasdistributed to the school children, for completion by parents and return to the school.Peak flow examination also applied for lung function.Setting Five government primary schools; three boy’s schools and two girl’s schools inAl-Yahar area.Main outcome & measures Prevalence of asthma among School children and significantpeak flow to diagnosed Asthma.Results Prevalence rate was 9.6% among school children aged 6-14 years, which were24 asthmatic children out of 250 children. The prevalence was high in asthmatic boysthan asthmatic girls with a ratio of 3:1 and was statistically significant. According tothe tribes in Al-Yahar the Yamani children have high prevalence of asthma than othertribes in the same area.50% of asthmatic children had the first attack of asthma in thefirst two years of the life. The prevalence of Asthma was higher (14.3%) if the parentssmoked 5-10 cigarettes per day and the prevalence was less if the parents smokedless than 5 cigarettes per day. The examination of the peak flow shows that two onlyhave abnormal lung function and these two children were having recent attack ofasthma.Conclusion This is the first study done in UAE about Prevalence of asthma. This studyneeds to be spread to include all other Emirates, to assess the influence of theenvironment, genetic and other factors on asthma.