Gravidade da asma em adolescentes e sua evolução temporal

Abstract

Identify the severity of asthma in adolescents from Belo Horizonte through the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) applied in 2012 and compare with the data obtained ten years earlier. Methodology: Asthma severity was assessed by the following questions: “In the last 12 months, how many wheezing episodes did you have?” In the past 12 months, how often have you had your sleep disturbed by wheezing? and “In the past 12 months, was your wheezing so strong that it prevented you from saying more than 2 words between breaths? “ Results: 3325 adolescents answered the questionnaire, being 56.1% male. The prevalence of asthma symptoms in the sample in that year was 19.8%, representing a significant increase in relation to 2002 (17,8%). Regarding severity, was observed that the number of adolescents who presented more than three crises in the year presented a statistically significant increase from 11% to 15.1%. Among asthmatic adolescents, more than half were diagnosed with rhinitis (58.8%), mainly females (65.6% of cases). Adolescents with asthma and concomitant rhinitis showed greater severity of the disease with more nights of disturbed sleep, wheezing strong enough to interrupt speech, and greater number of exacerbations in the last year. Conclusion: In the temporal evolution, the prevalence and severity of asthma presented a significant increase, mainly in the female sex and those who reported rhinitis symptoms