A cross sectional descriptive study to assess peak expiratory flow rate in healthy school going children between 6 to 12 yrs of age from Bhilai (C.G.), India

Introduction: Asthma is the most common chronic inflammatory disease in children and is major global health problem which exerts a substantial burden on family, health care services and on society as a whole. Prevalence of asthma in children is increasing day by day globally supported by different studies in different countries. Pulmonary function tests of various types are utilized clinically and epidemiologically to measure functional status in order to assess the disease. Materials and Method: The present Cross-sectional prospective study was carried out to determine PEFR in healthy school going children between 6 to 12 years of age from Bhilai, Chhattisgarh during study Period July.2015 - Jun.2016. Healthy children attending schools from Bhilai (C.G.), India within 5 km radius of C.M. Hospital Bhilai (C.G.) India, were enrolled for the study. Total 1470 children were included in the study. The procedure of PEFR measurement using the Mini Wright peak flow meter was demonstrated to the child to measure PEFR. Observations: The mean PEFR values were higher in boys when compared to girls across all the age groups. Linear positive correlation was found between the study variables age, height, weight and chest circumference and the outcome variable PEFR both in boys and girls. The correlation is highly statistically significant in both the study groups. Though the correlation between age, weight, chest circumference and PEFR was found to be significantly positive, highest positive correlation was obtained for height and PEFR in whole sample(r=0.847) and also both in boys (r=0.848). Conclusion: In our study, baseline values of PEFR, established can be useful in diagnosing and following asthmatic children. Significant correlations are found between PEFR and biological variables like age, weight, height and chest circumference in the current study.