Prevalence of Asthma and Associated Risk Factors in An Urban Okara Population: Adult Asthma Study

Abstract

Background: Asthma is a significant health issue in the world as it has an impact on more than 260 million individuals across the world. Even though it is preventable and manageable, asthma is underdiagnosed and understudied in most of the developing countries, such as Pakistan. The prevalence and risk factor data of asthma and the smaller cities like Okara lack adequate data hence the consideration of the local evidence in epidemiology.

Objectives: The hypotheses were to estimate the rates of the prevalence of asthma among the urban Okara population of adults and define the key demographic, lifestyle, and environmental risk factors in the context of the disease.

Methodology: A community-based cross-sectional survey was conducted in the urban area of Okara city among 100 adults aged 18 years and above residing in the community. Data on sociodemographic characteristics, smoking status, family history of asthma, environmental exposures, and asthma-related respiratory symptoms were collected using a structured questionnaire. Asthma was defined as either a self-reported physician diagnosis of asthma within the past 12 months or the presence of typical asthma-related symptoms. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, and logistic regression analysis. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: The research revealed that asthma was high among the research population surveyed. Despite the fact that the females, overweight/obese and those having pets or living close to the main roads exhibited greater prevalence of asthma none of the associations was statistically significant. Asthma was also not significantly related to smoking status, cooking fuel type, family history and household mold. The study demonstrated that asthma is a multifactorial and complex problem, with no direct overriding predictor responding to a combination of demographic, lifestyle and environmental exposures.  

Conclusions: Asthma is a major health issue of the city of Okara population. Although classical risk factors were not highly statistically significant, this high prevalence provides the message of the high level of urgency in the field of prevention, better diagnosing, and better management.