Prevalence of asthma and allergic rhinitis among adult population in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

BACKGROUND: Mongolia is changing lifestyle, unhealthy habits, increase of air pollution, increasing life expectancy have led to an up rise of chronic respiratory diseases. Over 10 years ago, the prevalence of asthma and allergic rhinoconjunctivitis in Mongolia were in the lower range reported from previous studies. OBJECTIVE: The main aim of the survey is to know the prevalence of asthma and allergic rhinitis among adult population of Ulaanbaatar city, Mongolia and their risk factors. METHODS: Total of approximately 1,200 adults aged 20 years and over were planned to be randomly selected. The questionnaire was developed on the basis of WHO Protocol for Assessment of Prevalence of Major Respiratory Diseases and modified by local risk factors assessment and by other international survey approach including Global Initiative for Asthma and European Community Respiratory Health Survey. RESULTS: Prevalence of current wheezer in all age group was 15.7% (95% CI: 14.7-16.8). Age and sex segregated distribution of current wheezer were defined among male and female and prevalence was 14.5% (95% CI: 13.3-16.2) in male and female 16.6% (95% CI: 15.2-18.3) respectively. Prevalence of diagnosed asthma among adults was 4.7% (95% CI: 4.3-5.6) in all age group, 3% (95% CI: 2.4-3.7) in male and 6.8% (95% CI: 5.8-7.9) in female. Prevalence of rhinoconjunctivitis was 14.6% in all age group. 28.4% out of subjects with allergic rhinitis has current asthma, while 11.6% of subjects without allergic rhinitis has asthma (p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of asthma increased for one decade in Ulaanbaatar. Prevalence of diagnosed asthma is approximately 5% and current wheezer is approximately 15% in adults of population, which is close to other Asia and European countries. Allergic rhinitis is a risk factor for asthma.

Estimated mortality rate by sex-age and death causes in Karachi

An estimated mortality rate of encephalitides in Karachi was 37.0 per 100,000 population [male: 42.0, female: 31.4] for the death records survey in five big hospitals and one private clinic in District III. The estimated mortality rates per 1000 population by sex and age were as follows: 15.9 in all males, 14.0 in all females, 34.7 in age group of 0-4 and 77.7 in age group of 70 and above. The mortality rate in age group of 5-49 was higher in females than in males. The estimated mortality rates per 100,000 population by death causes were as follows; 208.8 for infections and parasitic disease, 96.5 for diseases of the nervous system, 361.0 for diseases of the circulatory systems