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

Project No. 62 (1995)Epidemiology of Acute Asthma Among Patients Attending the Accidents andEmergency Department in Tawam Hospital - 1993Student Authors: Wejdan AbulrazzaqFaculty Supervisors: Prof. O. Lloyd, Dr. G. AbsoodAbstract:Objectives To determine the epidemiological determinants of acute asthma amongpatients attending the A&E department of Tawam Hospital in 1993. To find therelationship between number of cases and seasonal trend and to compare the findingsaccording to age, sex and time of attendance.Methods Study population was patients who were treated for acute asthma in theaccident and emergency Department of Tawam Hospital from 1 January to 31December 1993. The study was designed as a descriptive and analytical study wheredata were collected from the records of the accident and emergency department ofTawam Hospital. Descriptive data was conducted with chi-square and t-test todetermine the statistical significance between the variables.Results A total of 1000 patients with asthma visited the accident and emergencydepartment of Tawam Hospital during the 12-month study period. Those patientsrepresented 5.1% of the total number of patients (19 589) by all categories of patientsvisiting the accident and emergency department. Frequency of visits increasedprogressively from 195 (10.8%) in October to 205 (11.1%) in December, while in theother months the number of visits were less (chi-square 3.56, significance 0.31).During the 12-month study period, a significant seasonal trend was noted, with anincrease in the frequency of attendance in winter months (Oct, Nov and Dec). Thefrequency of attendance to the accident and emergency department was at its highestlevel in the age group