Volume : II, Issue : X, October - 2013

Prevalence of Asthma and Risk Factors Inside the Poor Homes in India: A Sudy

Abha Lakshmi Singh, Saleha Jamal

Abstract :

Asthma is multifactorial disease influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. A rapid increase in asthma in recent years cannot be attributed to changes in heritable factors but the focus of intrusions for the increased occurrence of asthma, therefore, should be on environmental factors. Asthma is extremely low in India’s healthcare facilities especially for the poor. Poor families cannot prevent asthma because of the risk inside their homes. In present study an attempt has been made to find the prevalence of asthma among women inside low income homes. This study is based on primary sources of data collected through questionnaire interviews from 1,200 low income/poor households of Aligarh city located in the Gangetic tract of North India. Since women spend long hours inside their homes and are more involved in household activities like cooking they were chosen as respondents. The study examines the socio–economic conditions, prevalence of asthma on the basis of symptomatic and clinical reporting, identifies the risks inside the homes (establishes the association between risks like cooking conditions (use of biomass fuels/chulhas, cooking in multipurpose room, non–ventilated kitchen), substandard housing (living in kutcha/semi–pucca houses), indoor crowding) and finally monitoring of indoor air pollutants (SPM (PM10, PM2.5) and gaseous pollutants (CO, CO2, SO2, NO, NO2)). The results show that prevalence of asthma among women is greater because they spend long hours inside their home and they are more exposed to indoor air pollutants and the risks inside the homes helps in triggering asthma

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Article: Download PDF   DOI : 10.36106/ijsr  

Cite This Article:

Abha Lakshmi Singh, Saleha Jamal / Prevalence of Asthma and Risk Factors Inside the Poor Homes in India: A Sudy / International Journal of Scientific Research, Vol.2, Issue.10 October 2013

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