Childhood bronchial asthma as a social problem

ABSTRACT

Asthma is one of the most frequently occurring chronic health conditions of childhood and there is evidence that its prevalence and severity are increasing. The goal of this paper is to investigate the impact of childhood asthma on children's health by comparing the status of children with and without asthma to determine the overall impact on the functional status and psychosocial functioning of the child. A case-control study was conducted on preschool children attending the three main experimental language schools in Alexandria. The children were subjected to screening questions adopted from the National Health Interview Survey to identify children who had asthma. Asthma severity score was used to classify asthmatic children according to the severity of asthma. Assessment of children's activity was done by using NHIS classification. Assessment of behavior disturbances was done by using the Pediatric Symptom Checklist. The study revealed signiiicant limitation of activity in asthmatic children either with mild asthma [P = 0.003] or moderate/severe asthma [P = 0.000]. The increase of school absence was significant in moderate/severe asthmatic children [P = 0.003] but not significant in mild asthma [P = 0.83]. There was also a significant increase of behavior disturbances between children with mild asthma [P = 0.004] and children with moderate/severe asthma [P = 0.000]