Impact of Seasonal Changes on Asthma Control in North-Western Nigeria

Asthma control is poor worldwide and is often affected by changes in environmental conditions. Effort to determine the cause of this heavy burden on patients and the healthcare system is crucial.

To determine the role of seasonal changes on asthma control in Sokoto, North-Western Nigeria.

One hundred and one (101) patients with physician diagnosed asthma were consecutively recruited after obtaining informed consent. A structured researcher administered questionnaire was used as instrument of data collection and asthma control test questionnaire was also used to assess level of asthma control in each participant. Five items with a 4-week recall were assessed. Data for temperature, humidity, wind and rain was obtained from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), Sokoto. We computed frequency and level of asthma control with seasons of the year and weather variables.

One hundred and one patients comprising 71 females and 30 males with a mean age of 32.14 ± 10.68 years participated in the study. Level of asthma control was found to be poor among the participants with 41(40.6%) having very poorly controlled asthma, 30(29.7%) with not well controlled and 30(24.8%) well controlled asthma respectively. Among patients with very poorly controlled asthma, 22(48.9%) occurred during harmattan season and 14(31.1%) during rainy season. Weather parameters such as humidity shows significant relationship with asthma control (B= -0.504, P= 0.031, 95% CI [-0.012, -0.0253]).

The study shows that asthma control is poor among the participants and presentation with poor asthma control is more during harmattan season.