Prevalence of asthma among adult population in Western provinces, Mongolia

<bold>Background:</bold> Mongolia is changing climate, increase of air pollution, unhealthy habits have led to an up rise of allergies. In 2000, the prevalence of asthma among adults was 2.4% in rural towns. In 2010, the prevalence of current asthma in all age group was 15.7%, diagnosed asthma was 4.7% among population of capital city. <bold>Objective:</bold> The aim of this survey was to define the prevalence of current and diagnosed asthma among adult population of rural Mongolia. <bold>Methods:</bold> Total number of the adult survey subjects aged 18 years and over was total of 548 adults were randomly selected from Arkhangai and Gobi-Altai provinces. A questionnaire based interview was conducted on all of subjects, clinical examination, skin prick tests, spirometry and bronchodilation test were used to define the clinical diagnoses. <bold>Results:</bold> The prevalence of current asthma was 17.6% (95% CI: 15.1-18.8) in all survey subjects who are living in Western provinces, 19.6% (95%CI: 16.3-21.2) in Arkhangai province and 15.5% (95%CI: 13.2-16.5) in Gobi-Altai province. The prevalence of diagnosed asthma with 95% confidence intervals were 5.1% (95% CI: 4.1-6.8) in all subjects in Western provinces, 4.5% (95%CI: 3.3-5.2) in Arkhangai province and 5.6% (95%CI: 4.2-6.3) in Gobi-Altai province. <bold>Conclusion:</bold> The prevalence of asthma increased two times for two decades in adult population of Western provinces of Mongolia.