Prevalance of Asthma in the Population Aged Over 15 in Denizli Province

Abstract

The aim of the study was to determine the prevalance of bronchial asthma in Denizli province. At the beginning of the study: a representative sample of Denizli province was chosen from household registrations of all health centres in the city province by a systematic sampling method. Midwives visited selected houses. A screening questionnaire for asthma based on the European Community Respiratory Health Survey was applied to persons aged 15 years and older, each person living in these houses. There were 1957 people (women 50.1%, men 49.9%). The persons who answered "yes" to any one of the questions in the screening questionnaire were considered as potential asthma patients and these persons were invited to further investigation. In addition to physical examination, pulmonary function tests and reversibility test were performed on these people. As a result; asthma prevalance was found as 2.71% in persons aged 15 years and older in Denizli, and it was 3.58% in females and 1.84% in males. Also asthma prevalance in adult population (aged 19 years and over) was found as 3.74% in females and 2.02% in males. Asthma prevalance in Denizli was similar to results obtained from other regions of Turkey.