A health survey on the influence of various factors in the development of childhood asthma.

• Main Author: Perez, Angela P.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 1998
• Subjects: Health surveys; School children; Asthma in children; Bronchi > Diseases
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/1581
• Institution: De La Salle University

A health survey on the influence of various factors in the development of childhood asthma was conducted among Filipino school children between the ages of 5-13 of Fe De Guzman Learning Center at Boston St. Brookside Hills Cainta, Rizal and Oranbo Public Elementary School at Barangay Oranbo, Pasig City. There was a total of 920 survey forms distributed and 513 (56%) of which were retrieved. Sixty-five (12.7%) were asthmatics. 446 (86.9%) were non-asthmatics, and two (0.4%) with invalid response. The various asthma influencing factors -family history/heredity, socioeconomic status, family size, infant milk diet, parental smoking and exposure to furs of pets in the house-did not show any significant relationship with asthma severity. However, a large percentage (72.31%) of the asthmatic subjects have first degree relatives with asthma indicating that heredity has a great influence on childhood asthma. The different factors were also compared among the asthmatics and the non-asthmatics. Only family history/heredity had a significant difference between the two groups (p<.05). The rest of the factors --socioeconomic status, family size, infant milk diet, parental smoking, and pets in the house--showed no significant difference between the asthmatics and the non-asthmatics. Asthma in early childhood appeared to be mainly influenced by heredity and that the other remaining factors presented no significant association with the occurrence of childhood asthma.