Asthmatic children and risk factors at a province in the southeast of Turkey.

BACKGROUND The prevalence of asthma appears to be on the increase and the risk factors are not well established. Environmental and demographic characteristics of asthmatic children were investigated to identify the risk factors accompanying asthma. METHODS 140 asthmatic children aged at 3-15 years were compared with 96 age-matched control subjects admitted to the paediatric outpatient clinics of Dicle University Hospital. Information about the children were obtained from parents and patients'charts. RESULTS Patients with asthma were most frequently admitted in May-June and November-January months. Association of the disease with allergic rhinitis was found in 84 children (60 %), allergic conjunctivitis in 63 (45 %), atopic dermatitis in 29 (21 %) and gastrointestinal symptoms in 18 (13 %). Mean age of the cases was 6.8 3.3 and 6.9 3.2 years (p > 0.05); male to female ratios were 91/49 and 43/53 (p = 0.002) in the study and control groups, respectively. There were significant differences at number of cases stated to have any symptoms induced by air pollution (25.6 %, 3.1 %, p < 0,001), exercise (47.5 %, 4.2 %, p < 0.001) and cold exposure (33 %, 15.6 %, p = 0.03), but not by damp, dust, indoor smoking, foods, drugs, and animal contact (p > 0.05) between the study and the control groups, respectively. Family history of atopy was 66 % and 8.4 %, (p < 0.001) in the study and control groups, respectively. Family crowding index, duration of breast feeding, parental education and number of consanguineous married parents were not different between both groups. History of upper respiratory tract infections were more frequent in asthmatic children than controls. Children with an earlier age of onset ( 5 years. CONCLUSIONS Many risk factors, both individual and environmental are associated with asthmatic children in Diyarbakr. Among many risk factors that aggrevating asthma in children in Diyarbakr, air pollution, cold exposure and upper respiratory infections are preventable.