Prevalence of respiratory diseases in children and adolescent exposed to biomass burning

• Grant number: 16/07622-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2016
• End date: December 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy
• Principal Investigator: Dionei Ramos
• Grantee: Tamires Veras Soares
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia (FCT). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Presidente Prudente. Presidente Prudente , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The air pollution caused by sugar cane night burning has been approached due to its harmful effects on human health, being responsible for the increase of symptoms and hospitalizations to respiratory diseases in children and adults. Around 50% of sugar cane cultivation in Brazil are concentrated in São Paulo State and, due to that, the region of Presidente Prudente/SP is amongst the areas with sugar and ethanol mills that use the night burning technique of sugar cane crops. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prevalence of respiratory diseases in children and adolescent living exposed to air pollution caused by biomass nocturnal burning. METHODS: The study is cross-sectional, population-based, using data through a questionnaire ISAAC - International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood that will be applied directly to the adolescent or the legal responsible for those under 12 years. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: For data normality will be assessed by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and the description of the results will be held by mean and standard deviation values. The association between categorical variables will be verified by the chi-square test (Yates' correction will be used in 2x2 contingency tables). For multivariate analysis will be used Poisson regression with robust adjustment of variance. All analyzes will be carried out in Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0 and will be adopted statistical significance (p-value) of less than 5%.