The prevalence of allergic disorders is increasing around the world. This study used the standardized written questionnaire from International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC, phase III) to collect two cross-sectional appraisals of schoolchildren 5 years apart-one performed 2002 and another on 2007, to focus on the secular trends in prevalence of allergies in central Taiwan. This questionnaire was administered to schoolchildren from over 46 schools across Changhwa County in 2002, and again in 2007. The present study is a follow-up study and uses data collected from a previously reported study conducted in the year 2002 of the same location using the same methodology. Although the repeated cross-sectional survey after a 5-year lapse suggests a mere increase of diagnosed asthma cases from 7.1% to 7.4%, the prevalence of its related symptoms--nocturnal cough, rhinitis, and eczema--was found to increase significantly by 2.6% (p < 0.0001), 6.8% (p < 0.001), and 5.9% (p < 0.001), respectively. Additionally, comparing the secular trends in asthma prevalence, rhinitis, and eczema between several polluted areas in Changhwa County with its less polluted neighbors in 2002 and 2007 indicates that schoolchildren in TaiHao area, which is noted to be polluted by a petrochemical company, has a significantly increased prevalence of wheezing (3.7%, p < 0.05) and nocturnal cough (3.6%, p < 0.05). For schoolchildren living in the coastal areas, a 6% (p < 0.05) increase in the prevalence of rhinitis is noted. The prevalence of eczema uniformly increased for all areas of Changhwa County (p < 0.01). In the downtown areas, besides eczema, the prevalence of asthma and rhinitis also increased significantly (p < 0.05). Of note is the consistent finding in these two periods of the higher prevalence of childhood asthma, rhinitis, and eczema in the downtown areas compared with that from both the polluted and coastal areas. The secular trends in prevalence of asthma, rhinitis, and eczema in these two periods seem to correlate to environmental factors. While the symptoms of asthma, rhinitis, and eczema in schoolchildren affected boys more than girls, it is observed that affected girls have more marked manifestations, although it did not reach statistical significance.

change intervention by community volunteers for 12 months. A baseline, midterm and follow-up study were carried out during entire period of this intervention.Results After 1 year of community based intervention, knowledge on iron richer food increased and causes of anaemia decreased from 62.9% to 82.2% and 86.1% to 71.5% respectively. Knowledge on symptoms and ways to prevent anaemia has also increased. It was found that more than two third (78.7%) of participants has the knowledge on number of iron tablets required per month. After the intervention ended around 16.7% adolescents were taking iron tablet regularly meanwhile when iron folate supplementation was distributed free of cost and after that when it was sold door to door by the Community Volunteers (CVs) the rate was 94% and 28.5% respectively. Conclusions Despite of the knowledge and positive attitude towards taking iron tablets, practice is not quite satisfactory, which might be due to nature of consumer and psychological behaviour along with inaccessibility of pharmacy is far away from the villages.