Patterns, factors associated and morbidity burden of asthma in India

Background: Asthma is a non-curable but preventable disease, responsible for higher morbidity worldwide. According to recent WHO report, nearly 235 million people are suffering from asthma leading to 383000 deaths in 2015. The burden of asthma morbidity is higher in developed countries and is increasing in developing countries. Objective: The present study was aimed at studying the change in prevalence rate of asthma, associated risk factors and estimation of morbidity burden and avoidable cases of asthma in India. Methods: The second round of Indian Human Development Survey (IHDS-II), 2011–12, was used for the study. For the present study, asthma was defines as ever diagnosed with asthma or having cough with short breath. Multiple-logistic regression was used to identify the possible risk factors associated with prevalence of reporting asthma. Population attributable fractions (PAFs) were computed to estimate the overall and risk factors specific burden of morbidity due to asthma using the extrapolated population of year 2015 using 2011 census. Results: Overall prevalence rate of asthma increased from 41.9 (per 1000 population) in 2004–05 to 54.9 (per 1000 population) in 2011–12. The prevalence rate of reporting asthma was higher in poorer states compared to richer states, and also varied by sub-geographies, with higher prevalence rate in northern states of the country and lower rates in north-eastern states of the country. The odds of reporting asthma was higher for younger and older ages, individual with fewer years of schooling (OR: 1.41; 95% CI: 1.21–1.64) for individual with zero years of schooling compared to those with 11 or more years of schooling, individual from lower economic status, individual living in household using unclean fuels (OR:1.21; 95% CI: 1.08–1.34) and smokers (OR: 1.34; 95% CI: 1.17–1.55) compared to their counterparts. In the year 2015, the overall morbidity burden of asthma was estimated at nearly 65 million and more than 82 thousand deaths were attributed due to asthma. The burden was highest among individuals living in households using solid fuels (firewood~80%, Kerosene~78%). One-third of the cases could be eliminated by minimising the use of any solid fuels. Around 17% of all the asthma cases in population could be attributed to underweight. Conclusion: Eliminating the modifiable risk factors could help reduce in huge amount of asthma cases for example by providing education, cessation in smoking, and schemes like Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), by providing clean fuel (LPG) to poor and vulnerable households.