Elementary School Asthma Education Intervention Plan

Running head: ASTHMA RISK/ODDS RATIOS AND PREVALENCE INCIDENCE RATES

Asthma Ratio and Prevalence Incidence Rates

Joseph Toole

Public Health Informatics

5 April 2017

From the pre-intervention surveillance data set, School A has the highest number of students with asthma. A had 29 students with asthma (the highest), B had 25 students with asthma, C has 21 students with asthma while D has 16 students with asthma. School A has the highest number of students with wheezing, with 30 such cases. In total, 63 students have both asthma and wheezing. The odds that someone with asthma also has wheezing are given by the ratio of the number of students with both asthma and wheezing to the number of students with asthma but have no wheezing. There is a total of 91 students with asthma. 63 of these also have wheezing. Hence, the number of students with asthma but not wheezing is given by 91-63 = 28. Therefore, the odds of having wheezing when you have asthma are 63:28 or 9:4. This means that out of 13 students with asthma, 9 also have wheezing. In other words, 69.23% of students with asthma also have wheezing. (Dolnick, & Davidson, 2007).

The odds ratio for bronchitis and RAD refers to the odds that someone with bronchitis also has RAD. The number of students with both bronchitis and RAD is 34. The total number of students with bronchitis is 86. Thus, the number of students with bronchitis but no RAD is given by 86-34 = 52. Therefore, the odds ratio for bronchitis and RAD is 34:52 or 17:26 which is less than asthma and wheezing ratio. Bronchitis and RAD ratio means that out of every 43 students with bronchitis, 17 also have RAD. In other words, 39.53% of students with bronchitis also have RAD. It can thus be observed that bronchitis and RAD odds are lower than asthma and wheezing odds. (Dolnick, & Davidson, 2007).

The number of students with wheezing that were prescribed medication was 44. The risk ratio is estimated from the cumulative incidences. The risk ratio for being prescribed medication for wheezing is calculated by dividing the cumulative incidence of the group with wheezing by the cumulative group with no wheezing. The number of students with wheezing that were not prescribed medication is 55. Hence, the cumulative incidence for the group with wheezing is 44/99. The number of students with no wheezing that were prescribed medication is 20 while that of students without wheezing that were not prescribed medication is 681. The cumulative incidence for the group without wheezing is 20/701.

Risk ratio = (44/99) ÷ (20/701) = 15.58

The risk ratio for being prescribed medication for asthma is calculated by dividing the cumulative incidence for the group with asthma by that for the group without asthma. The number of students with asthma that were prescribed medication is 60 while that of students with asthma that were not prescribed medication is 31. The cumulative incidence for the group with asthma is 60/91. The number of students without asthma but were prescribed medication is 4 while that of students without asthma that were not prescribed medication is 715. Cumulative incidence for the group without asthma is 4/719.

Risk ratio = (60/91) ÷ (4/719) = 118.52 which is greater than the risk ratio for being prescribed medication for wheezing.

The number of students below the age of 10 years is 131, 8 of which had asthma and were prescribed medication, 5 had asthma but were not prescribed medication, 1 had no asthma but was prescribed medication while 117 had no asthma and were not prescribed medication. The risk ratio for asthma is thus (8/13) ÷ (1/118) = 72.62. 8 of the 131 students below the age of 10 years had wheezing and were prescribed medication, 6 had wheezing but were not prescribed medication, 1 had no wheezing but was prescribed medication while 116 had no wheezing and were not prescribed medication.

The risk ratio is therefore (8/14) ÷ (1/117) = 66.86. The risk ratio for wheezing for children under the age of 10 years is greater than that of the survey population. However, the risk ratio for asthma for the children is less than that of the entire population. (Suesse, 2010).

Asthma prevalence is given by the total number of asthma cases divided by the number of students in the population. For the sample of 7200 students, there is a total of 91 asthma cases. The prevalence for the school population is 91/800 =1.26%. The incident rate gives the number is new asthma cases in a population in a given time period. The incident rate is based on a person-time. This study was based on a school year hence we assume that within 1 year, 91 asthma cases developed hence, the incident rate is still 1.26%. A greater risk ratio a person will have a big chance of healing after he/she has been prescribed medication. For example, the risk ratio for being prescribed medication for asthma is greater than that for being prescribed medication for wheezing. This is an indication that one has to treat asthma in order to cure wheezing. An incidence ratio is an indication of how quickly a disease occurs in a population. In this case, within one year, 91 asthma cases are likely to develop and this emphasizes the need to set an asthma prevention program (Parodi, & Emanuel, 2009).

References

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Dolnick, B., & Davidson, A. H. (2007). Luck: Understanding luck and improving the odds.

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Suesse, T. (2010). Analysis: Odds Ratio Estimation, Modelling Strategies, Deletion Diagnostics and Graphical Diagnostic Methods for Multiple Response Data. Saarbrücken: LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing.

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Parodi, S., & Emanuel, S. (2009). Hodgkin's disease worldwide: Incidence, mortality, survival, prevalence, and time trend. New York: Nova Science.Bottom of FormBottom of FormBottom of Form

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