|
By using the video edition of International Study of Asthma and Allergy in Children(ISAAC),we studied the prevalence of asthma and wheeze from 13,097 junior high school students aged 11 to 16, living in the area of Kaohsiung and Pintung of Taiwan. Along with the study, we also examined relevant factors by making analyses of education levels of the children''s parents, air pollution, passive smoking, and residence environment. Besides, we also measured the lung function of the school children and assessed e influence of air pollution on the respiratory function.The study found that the average prevalence rate was 10.2%:It was higher in boys than in girls(11.19%vs 9.28%). In the analysis of sample logistic regression, the following were risk factors;school boy, youth,higher BMI, race in mainlander, mixed race, respectively, crowded area, parents with higher education level, short of exercise, first-grade relative with the sufferance from asthma, and self-consciousness of severe air pollution. On the corary, incense burned at home played a protective factor. In multiple logistic regression, in addition to the adjustment of the above risk and protective factors, we added the adjustments of relative factors such as passive smoking at home and mother''s smoking during pregnancy. We found there was no more asthma in the mixed race, the effect of other risk factors were still there and the odds of self- consciousness of air pollution to prevalence of asthma still maintained between 1.11~1.44.If we replaced the sf-consciousness of air pollution with air pollution parameter detected by EPA, we found the substances causing asthma in the air such as total suspended particles(TSP), sulfur dioxide(SO2)and carbon hydride(CxHy) were responsible for asthma. We also found that lung function of the school children in non-industry area was generally better than in industry area. And the lower forced vital capacity(FVC)and forced respiratory volume in the first second(FEV1) were 1.02%(95%CI [0.50~1.54])and 1.02%95%CI [2.09~1.33]), respectively.From the above study we conclude the air pollution may be a risk factors to cause asthma, and lower the lung function of school children.
|