[Asthma and ascariasis in children aged two to ten living in a low income suburb].

OBJECTIVE To assess the relation between children with asthma and ascariasis in the low income neighborhood of Pedregal, in Campina Grande (Paraíba, Brazil). MATERIAL AND METHOD The International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISSAC) standard questionnaire was distributed to 1,095 children but only 742 of them answered it and provided stool samples for parasite examination. The cross-sectional study included those 742 children, whose age ranged from 2 to 10 years. The association between asthma and ascariasis was studied through Kappa rating. Demographic and clinic variants comparing the two groups were analyzed by chi-square test (chi(2)) or t Student test. RESULTS Among the 742 children analyzed, 51.9% (385) were males and 48.1% (357) females. The prevalence of asthma was 59.7% (443) and that of ascariasis was 56.3% (418). The frequency of asthma in the ascariasis group (60.5%) was similar (chi(2)) = 0.27, p > 0.06) to the frequency of asthma in the non-infected group (58.6%). CONCLUSION Despite the high prevalence of the diseases studied, there is no apparent relation between asthma and ascariasis in the population studied.