Correlation between open burning habit and asthma symptoms in children

Asthma is a non-infectious disease which is commonly occurred in children and its prevalence highly varies in the world. It is known that ambient air in environment can worsen asthma. Generally, children prefer to play around their houses means that air quality around the household great influence on children health status, especially concerning in asthma. The method used in this research was cross-sectional. Data were collected from parents by filling out modified ISAAC questionnaire. Chi-square was applied as well to analyse the correlation of variables examined. This study was conducted in Surabaya, Indonesia, with 65 children around 6-7 years old as sample group. The result indicated that there was correlation between asthma symptoms in children and family history of asthma (P=0.024), and correlation between asthma symptoms and children with family history of asthma who lived with family or neighbour that actively doing open burning habit (P=0.036). The conclusion was open burning habit was potentially associated with asthma symptoms in children, without abandoning other external factors such as family history of asthma.