Prevalência e associações de risco para asma e rinite em escolares de Guarulhos - São Paulo

Abstract

Bronchial asthma and allergic rhinitis are chronic diseases common in general population, especially children and adolescents, leading to quality of life impairment and hospital admissions. Its importance in industrialized countries is growing every year and new studies to address associated risk factors are a constant research need. Indoor environmental quality has a fundamental role in facilitating new cases or symptoms deterioration associated with exposure to inadequate indoor environment conditions. Recent studies show relevant evidences that indoor humidity caused by water damage or indoor flooding events is a consistent risk factor associated to development of new cases or to clinical deterioration of asthma and rhinitis. The objective of this study was to analyze the prevalence of respiratory symptoms in scholars in Guarulhos, SP and its associations with persistent humidity proxys in their residencies among children from 6 to 7 and adolescents from 13 to 14 years old, living in locations at risk for flooding episodes. For this, a transversal epidemiologic study was performed using ISAAC questionnaire among 580 scholars from public schools, in order to access the prevalence of symptoms suggestive of asthma and rhinitis. In order to identify environmental risk factors associated with respiratory symptoms a complementary environment questionnaire was used. As main results, we found a strong association of respiratory problems with atopic background in the children s parents. The humidity proxies indicators that were positively associated with intensity of asthma attacks in children from 6 to 7 years old were water damage in the house, time of appearance of the moisture spots and presence of moldy odor. We verified a positive association of humidity proxys with medical diagnosis of allergic rhinitis in children from 6 to 7 years old, namely time to dry flooding episodes longer than 12 hours, water damage and mould spots that appeared in the last 12 months. We can conclude that children from 6 to 7 years old are more susceptible to exposure of humidity in indoor environments, demonstrating asthma symptoms and medical diagnosis of allergic rhinitis associated with exposure to indoor humidity proxies when compared to older scholars. This suggests that scholars from 6 to 7 years old are more susceptible to indoor environmental humid conditions leading to allergic respiratory conditions.