Article Text
Abstract
Background Studies conducted in transitional communities from Africa and Asia have pointed to the process of urbanisation as being responsible for the increase in asthma prevalence in developing regions. In Latin America, there are few published data available on the potential impact of urbanisation on asthma prevalence. The aim of the present study was to explore how the process of urbanisation may explain differences in asthma prevalence in transitional communities in north-eastern Ecuador.
Methodology/principal findings An ecological study was conducted in 59 communities in Esmeraldas Province, Ecuador. Indicators of urbanisation were grouped into three indices representing the processes associated with urbanisation: socioeconomic, lifestyle and urban infrastructure. Categorical principal components analysis was used to generate scores for each index and a fourth index—a summary urbanisation index—was derived from the most representative variables in each of the three indices. The authors analysed the associations between community asthma prevalence and the indices, as well as with each indicator variable of every group. The overall prevalence of asthma was 10.1% (range 0–31.4% between communities). Three of the four indices presented significant associations with community asthma prevalence: socioeconomic (r=0.295, p=0.023), lifestyle (r=0.342, p=0.008) and summary urbanisation index (r=0.355, p=0.006). Variables reflecting better socioeconomic status and a more urban lifestyle were associated with greater asthma prevalence.
Conclusions These data provide evidence that the prevalence of asthma increases with increasing levels of urbanisation in transitional communities, and factors associated with greater socioeconomic level and changes towards a more urban lifestyle may be particularly important.
- Asthma
- urbanisation
- transitional communities
- childhood
- urban lifestyle
- asthma epidemiology
- asthma in primary care
- bacterial infection
- cytokine biology
- eosinophil biology
- exercise
- immunodeficiency
- lymphocyte biology
- neutrophil biology
- allergic lung disease
- respiratory infection
- tuberculosis
- asthma guidelines
- cystic fibrosis
- exhaled airway markers
- lung physiology
- paediatric asthma
- paediatric lung disease
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- Asthma
- urbanisation
- transitional communities
- childhood
- urban lifestyle
- asthma epidemiology
- asthma in primary care
- bacterial infection
- cytokine biology
- eosinophil biology
- exercise
- immunodeficiency
- lymphocyte biology
- neutrophil biology
- allergic lung disease
- respiratory infection
- tuberculosis
- asthma guidelines
- cystic fibrosis
- exhaled airway markers
- lung physiology
- paediatric asthma
- paediatric lung disease
Footnotes
See Editorial, p 1025
Funding Wellcome Trust, UK, HCPC Latin American Centres of Excellence Programme (ref 072405/Z/03/Z). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing interests None.
Ethics approval The study protocol was approved by the ethics committee of the Hospital Pedro Vicente Maldonado, Ecuador.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Linked Articles
- Editorial