Epidemiological Study on Bronchial Asthma

The overall burden of Asthma in India is estimated at more than 15 million .The present study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of different types of Bronchial Asthma and define their risk with age,gender,type of cooking fuel ,dwelling area,occupation and income,education, dietary habit,family history,Atopic Dermatitis,smoking & alcoholic habit, Diabetes in Visakhapatnam district, North coastal Andhra Pradesh,South India. One hundred and twenty patients from Hospital for Chest and Communicable Diseases were included in this study using a well designed ques- tionnaire, clinical examination by physician which was carried out from August,2008 to March,2009.The key questions were related to the type of Asthma,family history, presence of Atopic Dermatitis and Diabetes , information on smoking and alcoholic habits, domestic cooking fuel used, dwelling area,age,religion,socio-economic status and age of onset of disease.Out of 120 subjects surveyed,34 were females and 86 were males.The type of Asthma is distributed as Cough variant Asthma(50.83%),Nocturnal Asthma(17.5%),Allergic Asthma(20.83%) and Occupational Asthma(10.83%).Regarding family history,59.16% showed genetic predisposition irrespective of sex.Among Asthmatics,20% were having Atopic Der- matitis.25% were smokers,20% were alcoholics and 44.16% were with diabetics.Advancing age, usual residence in urban area,lower socio-economic status were associated with significantly higher odds of having Asthma.The present study shows that Asthma is an important public health issue in urban areas.It showed that Cough Variant Asthma,Diabetes and smoking habit increases the incidence of Asthma attacks. In order to attain a better quality of life in a chronic disease condition like Asthma, one needs to be aware of its aggravating factors.