Caracterización epidemiológica de los pacientes adultos con asma atendidos en consulta externa en el Hospital Vicente Corral Moscoso, en el periodo enero-diciembre 2019. Cuenca, Ecuador

Abstract

Background: asthma is a common chronic respiratory disease that affects up to 18% of the world's population. The prevalence of asthma in adults in Ecuador is not well known, due to the almost null existence of current epidemiological data on the disease. In Cuenca, there are no studies about it. General objective: to describe epidemiological characteristics according to variables of person and place, of adult asthmatic patients attended in the outpatient clinic at the Vicente Corral Moscoso Hospital (HVCM), during the period January-December 2019. Materials and methods: a retrospective, descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out. The universe and sample of the study were made up of patients between 18 and 80 years old, diagnosed with asthma, and treated at the HVCM pulmonology outpatient clinic in the period January-December 2019. The data were obtained from medical records and were collected using forms prepared for this purpose. The analysis was performed in Microsoft Excel® version 2013 and SPSS V21 programs. The results were presented in simple and contingency tables. Results: the prevalence of asthma was 15.39 per 100 patients. Women were the most affected with 72.7%. The mean age was 50.26 with a SD of ± 16.4 years. Most of the investigated subjects were from Cuenca. The most frequently reported comorbidity was rhinitis. The 17.4% work in agriculture, and of these 66.6% were exposed to dust particles. Most of the patients were non-smokers. In the HVCM there is no record of the application of scales for asthma control during the period of our investigation.