Prevalence of Bronchial Asthma among Patients attending Tertiary Allergy center /Kirkuk / Iraq

Abstract

Background: The prevalence of asthma worldwide increased last three decades, according to the world health organization estimate in 2005, around 300 million people affected with asthma, little data for its prevalence at Middle East. Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of asthma among patients attending tertiary allergy center in Kirkuk. Patients and Methods: The study included 1840 patients of different age groups from 1-4 years to age group 65 and above and deferent gender male and female, attending to allergy center from first of January to 30th of December 2017. They are diagnosed by clinical examination, spirometer, complete blood picture including eosinophil count and for certain patient’s chest x rays and sputum culture for suspect fungal infections like aspergilloses. Results: The study shows an increase prevalence of asthma at Kirkuk tertiary allergy center the prevalence was 6.94% and it is prevalence significant higher in adults than children, study shows at age group 20-44 year was 37.5% and age group45-65 years total number was 528 percentage 28.7%. Seasonal changes was clear there is an increase asthma cases at spring months from April to May the prevalence was 29.83% and an increase in autumn months from September to November the prevalence was 30.05%. According to gender the study shows the females little higher than males in the females was 5053%,in males49.47% .Conclusion: The prevalence of asthma is high in these locality and need more longitudinal data studies at the level of government to discover seasonal environmental factors play role in provoking asthmatic attack and need to be observed and studied which is important in prevention of asthma in our locality.