[Prevalence and severity of asthma in 6 and 7 year-old children from Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico]. / Prevalencia y severidad del asma en niños de seis y siete años de Torreón, Coahuila, México.

BACKGROUND: Asthma is in constant increase worldwide. Therefore it is important to perform epidemiological studies that reveal a diagnosis of the problem in different regions of the world. OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence and severity of asthma in school children of Torreón Coahuila, Mexico. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A comparative transversal study was carried out to determine the prevalence and severity of asthma in six and seven-year-old children. Subjects were selected randomly from the general population following a two-stage selection. In the first stage, primary schools (private and public) were chosen; and, in the second, subjects from these schools were selected at random. The subjects had to fulfill the inclusion criteria: six or seven years of age, both genders, without congenital diseases. A standardized survey used by the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) was applied to the selected children. The information was analyzed using descriptive statistics in the Stata 8.0 program, to obtain the prevalence and CI 95% of each variable in every gender, as well as in the total studied population. RESULTS: We studied 2,826 children, 51% females. The response rate was 94.2%. The prevalence of actual asthma was 9.9% (CI 95% 8.81-11.0), 25.7% had accumulated asthma (CI 95% 24.0-27.3), and 5.6% had diagnosed asthma (CI 95% 4.74-6.43). No relevant gender differences were observed in any of the variables. CONCLUSIONS: Actual asthma prevalence is higher in Torreón, Coahuila, than in Cuernavaca and Ciudad Juárez. No significant gender differences were observed.

Factor de riesgo para asma / Factor of risk for asthma

Objetivo: estudiar la magnitud de los factores de riesgo conocidos para asma en niños de 6 a 10 años de edad. Material y método: estudio de casos y controles con niños de 6 a 10 años de edad; 58 asmáticos y 117 controles, con una relación de 2:1. Los pacientes asmáticos se captaron de la consulta del departamento de inmunoalergias y los controles de la consulta de medicina familiar del Hospital de Especialidades núm. 71, IMSS. Se realizaron encuestas indirectas (madre) y dirigidas, de opción múltiple para explorar los factores de riesgo más conocidos en la literatura. El manejo estadístico se realizó por razón de momios con intervalos de confianza al 95 por ciento. Resultados: se comportaron como factores de riesgo las siguientes variables: ingestión de colorantes artificiales antes del año (OR = 13.2), residencia en un área urbana (OR = 7.74), tabaquismo materno durante el embarazo (OR = 2.4), contacto con lana antes del año (OR = 2.11), fumadores en la familia durante el embarazo (OR = 1.486) y alimentación con leche industrializada (OR = I.2). Conclusiones: los factores de riesgo ambiental son muy importantes en nuestra población al igual que la ablactación temprana; sin embargo, la ingestión antes del año con alergénicos como el huevo, el chocolate, la naranja y el mango no se comportaron como factores de riesgo.