Prevalence and Risk Factors of Dyspnea among General Population of Arar City, Kingdom Saudi Arabia

Mabkhoot Ali Meqbel2, Nasser Theeb Alqahtani3,, Abdulelah Aziz Eissa Alenzi1, Osama Alsallum Alanazi1, Tariq Hulayyil Alanazi1, Abdulwahab; Israa Abed Alfadhli5, Wijdan Salem Almatrafi5, Asma Salem Almatrafi5, Munirah Abdullah Almakhayitah4, Wejdan Jumyaan Alharbi5,

doi:10.21608/ejhm.2018.9072

Prevalence and Risk Factors of Dyspnea among General Population of Arar City, Kingdom Saudi Arabia

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Abdulelah Aziz Eissa Alenzi1, Osama Alsallum Alanazi1, Tariq Hulayyil Alanazi1, Abdulwahab Mabkhoot Ali Meqbel2, Nasser Theeb Alqahtani3, ¹
Munirah Abdullah Almakhayitah4, Wejdan jumyaan alharbi5, Israa Abed Alfadhli5, Wijdan Salem Almatrafi5, Asma Salem Almatrafi5 ²

¹ 1Faculty of Medicine, Northern Border University, 2Faculty of medicine, King Khalid University, 3Faculty of Medicine, King Saud University,

² 4 Faculty of Medicine, King Faisal University, 5 Faculty of Medicine Umm-Alqura University

10.21608/ejhm.2018.9072

Abstract

Background: Dyspnea is defined as the subjective experience of breathing discomfort. It is increasing by age and it is a common problem affecting up to half of patients admitted to acute, tertiary care hospitals and also affecting one quarter of ambulatory patients.Study objective: to determine the prevalence and risk factors of dyspnea among general population of Arar city, Northern Border Province, Saudi Arabia. Methods: This was a cross-sectional, community-based study. It was conducted on the general population of Arar city during the period from 1st October, 2015 to 30th June 2016.Data were collected using a predesigned online self- administered questionnaire covering all the needed items. Results: Dyspnea was reported in 35.2% of the study population. Causes of dyspnea reported in our study were mainly of unknown causes (38.6%), bronchial asthma (23.9%), allergy (22.7%), psychological causes (12.5%), cardiac causes (1.1%), and COPD (1.1%).It was more common among females as 44.8% of females reported dyspnea while it was reported in only 31.7% of males. Our study has also shown that dyspnea was most prevalent among the < 20 age group by ratio as 52.6% of them reported dyspnea. However, 36.1% of subjects aged between 20 and 40 have reported dyspnea. Precipitating causes of dyspnea were found to be mostly due to dust (30.7%), smoking (22.7%), climate changes (14.7%), nervousness (13.6%), specific food/ingested material (11.4%), and excess physical activities (6.8%). It was also founded in our study that 56.5% of participants with family history of dyspnea suffered from dyspnea. While 72.9% of those who did not have a family history of dyspnea did not suffer any dyspnea. Conclusion: Dyspnea was reported in 35.2% of Arar population. Our study showed that dyspnea was more common among females than males. large scale study with detailed investigations about causes and precipitating factors are required.

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