Due to their frequency and social and medical cost, asthma and chronic bronchitis are a mounting problem for the health staff among the many public health problems in Africa. However, except in a small number of countries, these problems have a lower priority than acute respiratory infections or tuberculosis. Against…
Rates Reported rates of observed morbidity in health services are of limited epidemiologic value because diagnostic criteria and complaints motivating clinic attendance and hospitalization are recorded according to varying methods and by persons with widely different qualifications; further, the development of health services varies considerably from country to country, as…
Asthma Prevalence Surveys of the prevalence of asthma have been conducted in various population groups: national representative samples, general district population, school children, and young recruits. The most commonly used method was by questionnaire (BMRC, CECA, ATS questionnaires, or specific questionnaires adapted and translated for local use). These were completed…
Nonspecific disorders, such as asthma and chronic bronchitis, are the most common and the most important chronic airways diseases (CAD). They are the major cause of chronic respiratory insufficiency in Africa as well as on other continents. Although clinicians diagnose each disease separately, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish one…
Most of the subjects who ever had asthma had at least one positive histamine test result, but 64 subjects (16% of the sample) had asymptomatic BHR at either one or both of the surveys. A substantial proportion of hyperresponsive subjects therefore may seem to have transient BHR of probably only…
In keeping with previous reports, the crosssectional analyses of data from the two surveys showed a strong association between atopy to HDMs and degree of histamine responsiveness, irrespective of the presence or absence of symptomatic asthma. Furthermore, the longitudinal analysis revealed that persistent or new atopy to HDM had significant…
The present study showed an overall decline in BR to inhaled histamine from childhood to early adulthood, possibly reflecting the growth-related increase in airway caliber, and furthermore, the level of FEV1 %pred, as an index of airway caliber, and atopy, especially to HDMs, are important determinants for changes over time…