Prevalence of Asthma in East Azerbaijan Adult Population and Its Determinants Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study from the Northwest of Iran.

Background: Asthma is one of the most common chronic respiratory diseases. It is estimated that more than 400 million people will suffer from it by 2025. This study aims to determine the prevalence of asthma in East Azerbaijan and investigate the association between asthma and some environmental and demographic factors.

Materials and methods: This is a cross-sectional study based on a major Lifestyle Promotion Project (LPP) conducted in the districts of East Azerbaijan, including 2641 participants aged 15 to 65 years of the general population selected through probability proportional to size (PPS) multistage stratified cluster sampling. We used the World Health Survey questionnaire about doctor-diagnosed asthma to determine the prevalence of asthma. Age, smoking status, physical activity level, socioeconomic variables such as job and education level, and body mass index (BMI) were used as covariates in regression models. A questionnaire was used to obtain socio-demographic information and smoking status. The short form of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire was used to estimate the level of physical activity (IPAQ).

Results: The mean age of participants was 40.9 ± 12.05 years including 1242 (47 %) males and 1399 (53 %) females. The prevalence of asthma was 3.3 %. The frequency of smokers was significantly higher in the asthmatic group compared with the non-asthmatic group (OR=2.33 [1.76-3.31]; p=0.03). There was no significant association between asthma and other demographic and lifestyle characteristics. Obesity has also played a significant role in the development of asthma.

Conclusion: According to the results of this study, obesity and smoking have played a significant role in the development of asthma but there is no statistically significant relationship between socioeconomic and demographic factors.