ABSTRACT
Background: Dyspnea is defined as the subjective experience of breathing discomfort. It is increasing by age and it is a common problem affecting up to half of patients admitted to acute, tertiary care hospitals and also affecting one quarter of ambulatory patients
Study Objective: to determine the prevalence and risk factors of dyspnea among general population of Arar city, Northern Border Province, Saudi Arabia
Methods: This was a cross-sectional, community-based study. It was conducted on the general population of Arar city during the period from 1[st] October, 2015 to 30[th] June 2016.Data were collected using a predesigned online selfadministered questionnaire covering all the needed items
Results: Dyspnea was reported in 35.2% of the study population. Causes of dyspnea reported in our study were mainly of unknown causes [38.6%], bronchial asthma [23.9%], allergy [22.7%], psychological causes [12.5%], cardiac causes [1.1%], and COPD [1.1%].It was more common among females as 44.8% of females reported dyspnea while it was reported in only 31.7% of males. Our study has also shown that dyspnea was most prevalent among the < 20 age group by ratio as 52.6% of them reported dyspnea. However, 36.1% of subjects aged between 20 and 40 have reported dyspnea. Precipitating causes of dyspnea were found to be mostly due to dust [30.7%], smoking [22.7%], climate changes [14.7%], nervousness [13.6%], specific food/ingested material [11.4%], and excess physical activities [6.8%]. It was also founded in our study that 56.5% of participants with family history of dyspnea suffered from dyspnea. While 72.9% of those who did not have a family history of dyspnea did not suffer any dyspnea
Conclusion: Dyspnea was reported in 35.2% of Arar population. Our study showed that dyspnea was more common among females than males. large scale study with detailed investigations about causes and precipitating factors are required