We investigate the familial and environmental risk factors associated with
asthma among United Arab Emirates schoolchildren aged 6-14 years. A cross-sectional study of 850 schoolchildren living in both urban and rural areas (average age 9.36 +/- 2.11 years; 46.8% boys, 53.2% girls) was conducted using self-administered questionnaires between October 1992 and May 1993. The population sample had a high prevalence rate of diagnosed
asthma (13.6%) and
allergic rhinitis (22.9%). The frequency of
asthma,
allergic rhinitis, and
eczema among parents and siblings reflected the same pattern as that seen in the children. Environmental risk factors associated with
asthma were pets, medicine, plants, dust storm, physical exercise, humidity, and
perfume. All other factors, such as foods, climate, and parental smoking, showed no apparent relation to the development of
asthma. The logistic regression analysis showed that parental
asthma, plants,
perfume, dust storm, humidity, and pets were the only significant predictors after adjusting for sex and other confounding covariates in the model. In conclusion, risk factors for
asthma identified by our study are similar to those found in other community-based studies. Consistencies and discrepancies between our findings and those from other studies with respect to
asthma risk factors support the hypothesis that
asthma is a multifactorial disease related to both familial and environmental influences.