Abstract

ALVES-CORREIA, Magna et al. “Vencer a asma 2017” campaign: A community-based screening in 8 portuguese cities. Rev Port Imunoalergologia [online]. 2018, vol.26, n.2, pp.97-108. ISSN 0871-9721.

Introduction: Asthma is one of the most frequent chronic non-communicable diseases. Nowadays it affects about 700,000 Portuguese. Screenings provide an opportunity to clarify the disease to the population, to alert the population to the importance of asthma control and recognition of their symptoms. Objectives, material and methods: Socio-demographic and descriptive characterization of the results from the campaign “Vencer a Asma 2017”. A cross-sectional study was carried out in 8 cities of mainland Portugal in a public initiative, free of charge and voluntary inclusion of the population, related to the World Asthma Day. Questions adapted from the GA2LEN questionnaire and simple spirometry execution. Results: 1086 participants, mean age 52.5±19.7 years; 62.4% female; 20.5% smokers and 62.6% performed in the North region of Portugal. Of the participants, 299 (28.0%; CI95% 25.3-30.7) self-reported current or past history of asthma; 80 (26.8%; CI95% 21.7-31.8) stated at least one hospitalization for asthma, and 181 (60.5%; CI95% 55.0-66.1) reported current asthma medication; 498 (46.6%; CI95% 43.6-49.6) reported wheezing in the last 12 months. During the screening, 549 participants (50.6%; CI95% 47.6-53.5) performed simple spirometry, among those 186 (34.1%; CI95% 30.1-38.1) presented altered spirometric parameters. Subgroup analysis revealed a prevalence of “current asthma” of 19.9% (95% CI 17.5-22.2). Conclusions: Screenings enabled, despite its limitations, to identify a large number of individuals in the community in a short time period. In the future, it will be useful for these initiatives to include patient reported outcomes questionnaires, skin prick tests, bronchodilation test or fraction of exhaled nitric oxide test, that allow a better characterization of the studied population, as well as the perception of the necessity of subsequent clinical evaluation in the cases where there is no adequate medical follow-up

Keywords : Asthma; community; community-based screenings; awareness.

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