RESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: To study the prevalence of asthma and its correlated factors in Zaozhuang area in 2003, to provide a basic consideration for prevention/treatment and control policy. METHODS: 6 points were selected by stratified-clusterd-random sampling with a total of 16,725 persons expected, but only 10,610 subjects investigated. RESULTS: In this survey, 128 asthma cases were identified with a overall prevalence of 1.21%. The prevalence for children was 2.02%, and for adult was 0.90% with the former significantly higher then the latter (chi(2) = 21.39, P < 0.01). Rates for male and female were 1.08%, 1.32% with a ratio of 1:1.22. For 77.97% of children with asthma. The initiative age of asthma was before 7 years old among children while among 36.23% of the adults, it was before 15 years of age. Correlation analysis showed that upper respiratory tract infection (OR = 17.81, 95% CI: 12.25-25.89), cold air exposure (OR = 3.43, 95% CI: 2.41-4.90), stimulation through cooking and by harmful gases (OR = 2.56, 95% CI: 1.80-3.63), allergic materials (OR = 2.74, 95% CI: 1.80-4.17) were main inducing factors. 65.63% of the asthma cases having had history of allergic disease while 25.78% having had family history with the OR of allergic history and family history as 21.69 vs. 73.96. CONCLUSION: The epidemic status of bronchial asthma was serious, with an assumption that asthma cases might have reached the number of 43 thousand in Zaozhuang area.