The Prevalence of Nasal Septal Deformities among Children in Kindergarten and First Grade in Anyang and Kunpo Cities

ABSTRACT

Nasal septal deformity (NSD) is a common nasal disorder, but its prevalence among children has not been reported in Korea. The aim of this work was to study the prevalence of NSD among children in kindergarten and first grade in Anyang and Kunpo cities and to evaluate whether the occurrence of NSD in children was affected by school activity or correlated with sex. We examined 1,646 nasal septa of 1,491 students (average age 7.5 years ; range 6.3-8.9 years) at three elementary schools and 155 children (average age 6.5 years ; range 5.9-7.1 years) at two public kindergartens. The overall prevalence of NSD was 13.6%. A significant difference in prevalence was found between male and female children and between male and female firstgraders. No difference was found between the children in kindergarten and the children attending first grade and between male and female children in kindergarten. The most common type of NSD, based on the Mladina's classification, was type 1, followed by types 2 and 5.