[Prevalence and associated factors to allergic rhinitis in school children of ciudad Guzmán, Mexico]. / Prevalencia y factores asociados a la rinitis alérgica en escolares de ciudad Guzmán, México.

INTRODUCTION: A considerable amount of risk factors have been proposed to explain the increase in the frequency of allergic rhinitis; some of them are atopy, cigarette smoking of parents, birthweight, type of feeding at the time of birth and the nutritional state, but the results have been inconsistent. The present study seeks to investigate the role played by these risk factors in the development of allergic rhinitis in a sample of school children. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The data was gathered from 6-12 year old school children. Their parents filled out the questionary which was validated by means of the International Study on Asthma and Allergies in Childhood. Further questioning included background regarding atopy, breastfeeding, birthweight and type of delivery; weight and height were used to calculate the body mass index. RESULTS: Among 740 children in this study, the frequency of allergic rhinitis was 5.5%; the past history of allergic disease in the father (OR = 3.1; CI 95%, 1.2-8.1, p = 0.018) or in the mother (OR = 3.2; CI 95%, 1.5-6.6, p = 0.002) was importantly associated to the development of allergic rhinitis. We did not find association with the rest of the variables under study. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that the prevalence of allergic rhinitis is similar to the one reported in previous studies. The only risk factor associated to allergic rhinitis was the past history of atopic disease in their parents.

[Atopic dermatitis in scholar children from Ciudad Guzman, Mexico. Prevalence and related factors]. / Dermatitis atópica en niños escolares de Ciudad Guzmán, México. Prevalencia y factores asociados.

BACKGROUND: Atopic dermatitis is an ever more frequent disease in children; its etiology is unknown, although a genetic predisposition along with environment factors could be the origin. OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of atopic dermatitis among school-children and the main associated risk factors. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A randomized, stratified and conglomerated sample of 6 to 12 year-old school-children was obtained. Their parents answered the main ISAAC questionnaire, to which some variables were added, such as family and hereditary history, tobacco smoking exposure and nutritional condition according to the body mass index as associated risk factors. RESULTS: We found a prevalence of 3% for atopic dermatitis, and the presence of dermatitis symptoms during the last twelve months was found in 6.8% of the cases. Multivariate analysis demonstrated an elevated risk for atopic dermatitis in children of mothers with any type of allergic disease (OR 2.75, CI 95% 1.09 to 6.92, p = 0.031). CONCLUSIONS: The frequency of atopic dermatitis as well as that of the symptoms was low, similar to previous reports conducted in Mexico. Maternal atopy was the only factor associated with atopic dermatitis.