In India the prevalence of asthma has increased over the last two decades, especially in children. There is scarcity of data on prevalence of asthma in school children. The aim of the study was to estimate the prevalence of asthma in school going children aged 9-14 years in the town of Kakinada, East Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh and determine the risk factors associated with it. METHODSFrom the listed many schools of urban and rural areas of Kakinada, 4 schools (i.e. 2 urban schools, 2 rural schools) were selected randomly. Total of 1117 students were thus selected from the four schools and the questionnaires were distributed to all of them, among them parents of 997 children responded. The questionnaire included the validated ISAAC screening questions and some other questions related to risk factors of asthma. RESULTSOverall, prevalence of bronchial asthma in this study was 15%. The prevalence of asthma in urban and rural areas was 16.8% and 13.4% respectively. The prevalence of asthma in boys and girls was 17.7% and 12.6% respectively. The prevalence of bronchial asthma in age group 9-11 years was 21.1% and in age group 12-14 years was 9%. The risk factors significantly associated with asthma were family history of asthma and tobacco smoking, personal history of allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis. CONCLUSIONSUrban areas had higher prevalence compared to rural areas. Boys (17.7%) had higher prevalence compared to girls (12.6%). Significant inverse linear association was found with increasing age as prevalence of asthma in age group 9-11 years (21.1%) was higher than 12-14 years' age group (9%). KEYWORDSAsthma, Prevalence, Risk Factors. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE:Rambabu B, Chandran CNM, Prasad AK, et al. Study of prevalence and risk factors of bronchial asthma in school children in urban and rural areas of Kakinada.

BACKGROUNDAcute Lower Respiratory Infection (ALRI) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in under five children in developing countries. There is a need to explore the association between easily modifiable risk factors and occurrence of ALRI in developing countries to bring down the incidence of ALRI. This study is taken up to identify the various risk factors for acute lower respiratory tract infection and their effect on severity and outcome in under five children.

Anaemia is the most widespread nutrition problem in the world and has predominance in developing countries like India, particularly in children and women. The magnitude of anaemia has been well-documented in pregnant women and infants, but there is scarce data on the prevailing occurrence of anaemia in school children. The current study was undertaken to know the point prevalence of anaemia and the comparative effectiveness of twice a week iron supplementation program to daily supplementation program in enhancing the hemoglobin levels in children aged 10-14 years with different grades of anemia in high schools in and around Kakinada, East Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh. METHODSA total of 400 children in the age group of 10-14 years were included in this study from both government and private schools by random sampling. After estimating the point prevalence of anaemia by Sahli's method all the children were given a single dose anti-helminthic and the children who were anaemic were further randomly divided into two subgroups A and B and allotted to either a daily or a twice weekly iron supplementation regimen respectively. The haemoglobin was again assessed after three months. RESULTSPoint prevalence of anaemia among these children was 95.75%. Prevalence of anaemia was significantly higher amongst girls (97.8%) as compared to boys (93.9%). Prevalence of anaemia was nearly equal in government (96%) and private (95.5%) schools. Mean improvement in Hb% of 2.23gm% and 1.98gm% was seen in daily and weekly twice iron groups respectively with no significant difference between two groups. Reduction in prevalence of anemia was 86% in daily iron and 80% in weekly twice iron regimen group. Daily iron group experienced more side effects (15.1%) when compared to weekly twice iron group (8.1%). CONCLUSIONThis study shows that the point prevalence of anaemia in school children is high. Supervised iron and folic acid therapy twice a week is as effective as daily administration to lower the prevalence of anaemia with fewer side effects, less cost and better compliance.

Globally, almost a quarter of people living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) are under the age of 25 years.