Open AccessA Studyof Effect of the Socioeconomic Status on Asthma Management in Children in South India
Author(s) -
Aparna Gulvadi,
Varun Sreenivasan,
Savitha Mysore Ramaraj
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
asian journal of medical research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2347-3398
pISSN - 2277-7253
DOI - 10.47009/ajmr.2020.9.1.pe1
Subject(s) - medicine , socioeconomic status , asthma , disease , pediatrics , social class , environmental health , population , political science , law
Background: Asthma is a chronic and potentially seriousconditionwith most children developingit at an early age. Every decade globally the prevalenceis increasing by 50%. Long term management focuses on preventingacute exacerbations, emergency attendances, hospitalizations, morbidity and mortality. Control of asthma is achieved by long term inhalers and bypreventing therisk factors.Various risk factors influence the variation in prevalenceand the long term outcome.Socioeconomic status(SES) is considered a major risk factor and is linked to various health outcomes especially in chronic diseases.Aim: To study the effect of SES on long term management of childhoodasthma.Subjects and Methods: 500 parents of children attending the asthma outpatient clinic in a medical college were interviewed.Results: Based on the Revised Kuppuswamy’s SES scale it was noted that 1.4% were upper class,33.6% upper middle,47%lower middle, 18%lower class. Our data revealed that parents from lower SES are unaware of diagnosis (0%), are reluctant to accept diagnosis (26.6%), reluctant to start inhalers (84.4%) in comparison to upper and middle classes.Conclusion: Failure to diagnose asthma, lack of awareness of disease, poor understanding of the chronicity, and failure to initiate early inhaler therapy and poor adherence to inhalers was significantly noted in children from low socioeconomic background and this can adversely affect the long term outcome.