ATOPIC DERMATITIS AMONG CHILDREN, JAZAN REGION SAUDI ARABIA: ROLE OF ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is considered to be one of the most popular chronic diseases. Little information is available regarding the prevalence of AD in Jazan Region, Saudi Arabia, especially among the adult group. Objective: This study was conducted to assess the relation between environmental factors and the AD-related symptoms in children in JR Saudi Arabia (SA). Methods: This was a cross-sectional study using the ISAAC questionnaire conducted among school children within Jazan region, SA over a period of 3 months started on November 2015 to fulfill the proposed objectives. Results: The overall response rate was 93.3% for that the final total sample size was 1400 students and most of them were Saudi 1193 (85.2%). Male students completed 763 (54.5%) questionnaires, and female completed 637 (45.5%). The background characteristics of the study population are shown in Table I. Most of study population was lived in rural area 871 (62.2%). Most of the students lived in lowlander area 836 (59.7%), and 461 (32.9%) and only 103 (7.4%) of them lived in costal and mountain areas respectively. Most of study population had intermediate level of education 1011 (72.2%). Conclusions: The current study revealed the prevalence rates of AD symptoms during last 12 months was 9.2%. The prevalence of AD among females was higher than in males. The prevalence of AD symptoms within last 6 months lived in rural area was higher than those in urban area. Our results reported that 19.2% of children who had AD symptoms are second hand smokers but we didn’t report significant correlation regarding to smoking. Keywords: Atopic Dermatitis, Environmental Factor, Jazan Region, Saudi Arabia