[Prevalence and aetiology of respiratory symptoms and affections in adolescent school children in French Polynesia (author's transl)].

Abstract

All the Tahitian school children from 3rd to final grade were questioned by an auto-questionnaire in May 1979. 93% replied to the questions asked (3,870). The prevalence of upper respiratory infections was increased as well as broncho-pulmonary symptoms (cough or other lung disease) during the year under study when compared to a control group in Metropolitan France. This prevalence was significantly increased both in boys and girls who smoked. The incidence of frequent or chronic cough was most increased in the older pupils, boarders, those followed a technical curriculum and belonging to the lower socio-professional categories. Asthma was very frequent at 11.5%, had an equal sex incidence and was not linked to any identifiable factor--the same enquiry was done in the Bas-Rhin department in France 3 years before; Tahitian school children, in general, have double the incidence of respiratory disease that is found in the Bas-Rhin.