A study on respiratory morbidities among school children post Diwali in Bangalore city

BACKGROUND: Diwali is a Hindu festival celebrated every year in the month of October/November throughout India. The burning of firecrackers during the festival releases a large number of air pollutants leading rise in ambient air pollution. Children are at risk of exposing to these chemicals and have shown an increased incidence of respiratory morbidities. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to identify the magnitude of respiratory morbidities among school children post Diwali in Bengaluru city. SETTING AND DESIGN: A cross-sectional study was conducted from November 2018 to January 2019 among school children aged between 10 and 16 years. METHODOLOGY: Schools coming under the urban field Practice area of Medical College and consenting for the study were selected by the simple random sampling. Students willing to participate from each school were selected by the simple random sampling. Each student was interviewed using the pretested semistructured questionnaire. STASTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Data were entered and analyzed using Epi-info 7.2.2.1. Descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation (SD), and proportions and inferential statistics such as the Chi-square test were used. RESULTS: A total of 637 participants were interviewed, of which 308 (48.35%) were boys and 329 (51.65%) were girls. The mean age of the study participants was 12.53 ± 1.65 years (mean ± SD). It was observed that 263 (41.28%) children were suffering from one or other respiratory morbidities. One hundred and thirty-five (21.19%) children were suffering from upper respiratory tract infection and 138 (21.66%) had lower respiratory tract infections. One hundred twenty-three (19.31%) suffered from allergic rhinitis, of which 59 (47.93%) had an exacerbation following Diwali. Twenty-seven (4.24%) were asthmatic, of which 17 (62.96%) experienced an exacerbation after Diwali. CONCLUSION: There is a high burden of respiratory morbidities among children following Diwali festival in Bangalore city.