Epidemiology of asthma and associated factors in an urban Pakistani population: Adult Asthma Study-Karachi
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Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Background
This study was conducted in order to determine the prevalence of asthma and associated risk factors in the adult population of Karachi, Pakistan.
Methods
This multi-stage, cross-sectional survey was conducted from May 2014–August 2015; comprising 1629 adults in 75 randomly selected clusters in Karachi, Pakistan. Definitions included: ‘self-reported asthma’, ‘reversibility in FEV1’ and ‘respiratory symptoms and reversibility in FEV1’.
Results
Prevalence of asthma was 1.8% (self-reported) (95% CI: 1.0–2.6), 11.3% (reversibility in FEV1) (95% CI: 9.4–13.3) and 6.6% (symptoms and reversibility in FEV1) (95% CI: 5.1–8.1). Asthmatics were more likely to belong to the age group ≥38 years according to ‘reversibility in FEV1’ and ‘respiratory symptoms and reversibility in FEV1’ (AOR: 1.9, 95% CI: 1.2–3.3) and (AOR: 2.1, 95% CI: 1.1–4.2), respectively. Asthmatics were more likely to report history of allergies (AOR: 1.9, 95% CI: 1.2–2.9) and (AOR: 2.8, 95% CI: 1.7–4.8); and were exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (AOR: 1.6, 95% CI: 1.1–2.5) and (AOR: 1.9, 95% CI: 1.1–3.3) according to ‘reversibility in FEV1’ and ‘respiratory symptoms and reversibility in FEV1’, respectively. Asthmatics were more likely to report pack years of smoking ≥5 (AOR: 2.3, 95% CI: 1.1–4.7) according to ‘respiratory symptoms and reversibility in FEV1’.
Conclusion
This study reports a high prevalence of asthma among Pakistani adults and calls for developing appropriate public health policies for prevention and control of asthma in the country. Further studies should be conducted to determine the national prevalence as well as follow-up studies to identify preventable causes for adult asthma.
This study was conducted in order to determine the prevalence of asthma and associated risk factors in the adult population of Karachi, Pakistan.
Methods
This multi-stage, cross-sectional survey was conducted from May 2014–August 2015; comprising 1629 adults in 75 randomly selected clusters in Karachi, Pakistan. Definitions included: ‘self-reported asthma’, ‘reversibility in FEV1’ and ‘respiratory symptoms and reversibility in FEV1’.
Results
Prevalence of asthma was 1.8% (self-reported) (95% CI: 1.0–2.6), 11.3% (reversibility in FEV1) (95% CI: 9.4–13.3) and 6.6% (symptoms and reversibility in FEV1) (95% CI: 5.1–8.1). Asthmatics were more likely to belong to the age group ≥38 years according to ‘reversibility in FEV1’ and ‘respiratory symptoms and reversibility in FEV1’ (AOR: 1.9, 95% CI: 1.2–3.3) and (AOR: 2.1, 95% CI: 1.1–4.2), respectively. Asthmatics were more likely to report history of allergies (AOR: 1.9, 95% CI: 1.2–2.9) and (AOR: 2.8, 95% CI: 1.7–4.8); and were exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (AOR: 1.6, 95% CI: 1.1–2.5) and (AOR: 1.9, 95% CI: 1.1–3.3) according to ‘reversibility in FEV1’ and ‘respiratory symptoms and reversibility in FEV1’, respectively. Asthmatics were more likely to report pack years of smoking ≥5 (AOR: 2.3, 95% CI: 1.1–4.7) according to ‘respiratory symptoms and reversibility in FEV1’.
Conclusion
This study reports a high prevalence of asthma among Pakistani adults and calls for developing appropriate public health policies for prevention and control of asthma in the country. Further studies should be conducted to determine the national prevalence as well as follow-up studies to identify preventable causes for adult asthma.
Date Issued
2018-12-04
Date Acceptance
2018-11-25
Citation
BMC Pulmonary Medicine, 2018, 18
ISSN
1471-2466
Publisher
BioMed Central
Journal / Book Title
BMC Pulmonary Medicine
Volume
18
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s). 2018Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, andreproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link tothe Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver(http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Sponsor
Wellcome Trust
Grant Number
085790/Z/08/Z
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Respiratory System
Asthma
Adult
Epidemiology
Risk factors
Spirometry
Pakistan
GLOBAL BURDEN
LUNG-FUNCTION
PREVALENCE
SYMPTOMS
HEALTH
STANDARDIZATION
SENSITIZATION
DIAGNOSIS
SMOKING
DISEASE
1102 Cardiovascular Medicine And Haematology
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 184