Severity of chronic asthma in children 2 to 12 years, presenting to a Tertiary Care Hospital.

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the frequency of severity of Chronic asthma (never taken controller therapy) in children 2 to 12 years, presenting to Pediatric Out Door Department. Liaquat National Hospital Karachi. Study Design: Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study. Setting: Department of Pediatrics Medicine, Liaquat National Hospital Karachi. Period: From June 2016 to December 2016. Material & Methods: A total of 106 children with symptoms of airflow obstruction characterized by recurrent cough, difficulty in breathing and wheeze were included in this study. All the study subjects were asked about clinical symptoms and on the basis of that severity of asthma were classified as mild, moderate or severe asthma. Results: The average age of the children was 6.38± 6.0 years. In this study, intermittent asthma was observed in 24(22.64%) cases. There were 30(28.6%) children with mild persistant asthma, 40(37.74%) children with moderate persistant asthma and severe persistant asthma was found in 12(11.32%) children. Conclusion: We found moderate persistent asthma, as the most frequent category, while severe persistent asthma was the least frequent category. Age had the significant effect on the asthma frequency; it was most common in less than 10 years old children. Duration of asthma and gender had no effect on asthma severity, while weight and height had a significant effect on asthma severity.