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Prevalence and associated factors of wheezing illnesses of children aged three to five years living in under-served settlements of the Colombo Municipal Council in Sri Lanka: a cross-sectional study

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Public Health, January 2018
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Title
Prevalence and associated factors of wheezing illnesses of children aged three to five years living in under-served settlements of the Colombo Municipal Council in Sri Lanka: a cross-sectional study
Published in
BMC Public Health, January 2018
DOI 10.1186/s12889-018-5043-3
Pubmed ID
Authors

Ruwanika Seneviratne, Nalika S. Gunawardena

Abstract

A rising trend in Sri Lanka for asthma and wheezing illness is observed with higher morbidity in younger children and a paucity of related research. 'Under-served settlements' (USS) of Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) have poor living environments conducive to childhood wheezing. The objective was to describe the prevalence and associated factors of wheezing illnesses of three to five year old children living in low-income settlements in CMC. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 460 three to five year old children and their caregivers using cluster sampling among residents of two randomly selected USSs of CMC. An interviewer-administered questionnaire, observation checklist and data extraction form were used in data collection. A physician's diagnosis of wheezing/whistling of the chest in their lifetime and a physician's diagnosis of wheezing/whistling within the past twelve months were considered as 'ever-wheezing illness' and 'current-wheezing illness' respectively. Mean age was 3.98 years (SD = ±0.64 years). A majority were males (51.3%) and Tamils (39.8%). Prevalence of 'ever wheezing illness' and 'current wheezing illness' were 38% (95% confidence interval (CI); 33.6%-42.5%) and 21.3% (95%CI; 17.6%-25.0%), respectively. Maternal (p < 0.001) and paternal (p < 0.001) histories of wheezing, playing with soft toys in the sleeping area (p = 0.004), place of cooking combined with the living area (p = 0.03), unsatisfactory ventilation in the sleeping area (p < 0.001) were found to be significantly associated with increased 'current wheezing' through multivariate analysis in this study. Use of formula milk before six months of age (p = 0.014) was found to be protective through multivariate analysis. The magnitude of wheezing illnesses among three to five year old children residing in urban low-income settlements was found to be high. Children with a history of maternal and/or paternal wheezing should be targeted for early interventions to prevent wheezing illnesses. Interventions to avoid exacerbations should focus on the indoor environmental factors that were found to be associated with wheezing illnesses.

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 83 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 83 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Bachelor 12 14%
Researcher 9 11%
Student > Ph. D. Student 8 10%
Student > Postgraduate 7 8%
Student > Master 5 6%
Other 11 13%
Unknown 31 37%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 25 30%
Nursing and Health Professions 5 6%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 3 4%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 2 2%
Sports and Recreations 2 2%
Other 10 12%
Unknown 36 43%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 25 May 2018.
All research outputs
#20,506,328
of 23,072,295 outputs
Outputs from BMC Public Health
#14,050
of 15,038 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#379,649
of 443,470 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Public Health
#218
of 226 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,072,295 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 15,038 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 14.0. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 226 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.