A Cross-sectional Epidemiological Study on Trends in the Prevalence of Allergic Diseases among Children and Adolescents in the Jeju Area in 2008 and 2013

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: This study was to find epidemiological trends in the prevalence of allergic diseases among children and adolescents in Jeju Province, Korea. METHODS: Two questionnaire surveys of the same method were conducted, respectively, in 2008 and in 2013 with five years' interval with 1,296 participants in 2008 and 878 in 2013 who were elementary and secondary students sampled at random from the same five schools. 'International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC)' was applied to the parents with their written consent to the survey. RESULTS: The results of analysis showed an increasing trend in the prevalence of lifetime asthma (8.6% in 2008 and 10.4% in 2013) and in the prevalence of lifetime allergic rhinitis (25.3% in 2008 and 31.1% in 2013) (p=.003), and a decreasing trend in the prevalence of lifetime atopic dermatitis (32.0% in 2008 and 26.8% in 2013) (p=.011). CONCLUSION: This research showed an increasing trend in the prevalence of asthma and allergic rhinitis among children and adolescents in Jeju Province compared to that 5 years ago, but represented a declining trend in the prevalence of atopic dermatitis.