[Respiratory symptoms in a pediatric population]

With the aim of determining the prevalence of respiratory symptoms and rhinitis among adolescents in Spain, we sent a brief questionnaire about respiratory symptoms to all school children (9,644) in the sixth, seventh and eight grades in our city. We identified a symptomatic group (SG) consisting of adolescents who reported having had one or more of the following three signs within the past 12 months: a) waking with a feeling of stuffiness; b) experiencing an asthma attack, or c) taking medication for asthma. Returned questionnaires accounted for 74.4% of those distributed. The following symptoms were reported: wheezing by 13.4%, nighttime oppression by 8.4%, stuffiness at night by 7.3%, nighttime coughing by 24.8%, asthma attack by 4.5%, taking asthma medication by 6.1% and seasonal rhinitis by 15.4%. The proportion of symptomatic children was 11.6% (833). All symptoms studied that were not required for inclusion in SG correlated highly with that group (p < 0.0001). Neither age nor sex were related to inclusion.