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Objectives: to assess the prevalence of asthma and to compare our findings with other countries involved in European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS).
Design: A cross-sectional study using a screening questionnaire adopted from ECRHS.
Participants: Adults living in Hasançelebi, a small town of Malatya from the eastern region of Turkey at 20-97 years of age, in both genders (232 men, 290 women).
Measurements and Results: The mean age was 46.3 years (SD=17.2 years), and 50% of the population was above 44 years of age. The prevalence of wheezing in the last 12 months, diagnosis of asthma and asthma attack in the last 12 months, use of asthma medicine, and any other allergic symptom were 22.6%, 2.3%, 4.5%, 4.3%, and 18.8%, respectively.Those who had wheezing (age: 52.6 vs 44.4 years), or an asthma attack in the last 12 months (age: 56.2 vs 45.8 years), or received asthma medicine (age: 54.6 vs 45.9) were significantly older than those who did not report the corresponding conditions.
Conclusion: The prevalence of asthma was within the range of other parts of Turkey, and the other Mediterranean countries. The old age observed in this population could at least be partly due to the immigration of the younger people from the town for economic reasons. Compared with the others, the older age of the subjects who reported asthma symptoms and use of medicine for asthma could reflect the severity of asthma in the elderly, which is a frequently underdiagnosed condition in this population.