The relevance of co-factors in Asthma

Abstract

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory lung disease characterized by hyper responsiveness and variable airway resistance. This study showed that all the patients had cough and tightness of the chest, while 95% of patients were breathless and 90% of the patients experienced wheeze. There were associated allergies, which include rhinitis (75%), pharyngitis (54%), conjunctivitis (54%) and eczema (30%). Patients were impaired by asthma in the various activities like running upstairs (83%), house work (55%), exercise or sporting activities (50%), walking against gravity (49%), laughing (45), sleeping (40%), hurrying (30%), dancing (27%), singing (19%), talking (18%), sexual intercourse (17%). Some patients were unable to dance, smile, talk and have sexual intercourse with their spouses because of asthma. Common provoking factors in this environment included cold weather, environmental smoke and house dust, sporting activities, upper respiratory tract infections, mode changes and emotions, and spraying of perfumes. Others are tobacco smoke, excessive breeze, cold water, Paint odor,  insecticide and food, hair spray, animal dander, pollen and walking etc . Prevalence of asthma was found to be higher among students than in any other profession.