Environmental Characteristics of Patients Having Chronic Respiratory Disease

Several environmental exposures have direct and indirect effects on health of respiratory system. Indoor and outdoor air quality both have variable effects causing or contributing to existing chronic respiratory conditions. Therefore, analyzing the characteristics of environment within which a person lives becomes significant in order to understand the relation between environment and chronic respiratory diseases.

Analysis of environmental characteristics/exposures of patients having chronic respiratory disease attending Respiratory Out-patient Department (OPD).

Respiratory OPD of a tertiary care hospital.

Retrospective Analysis of documented data (with emphasis on environmental exposures) of 50 chronic respiratory conditions (‘chronic’ indicating patients with respiratory disease since more than six months duration)

Environmental exposures of 50 patients including 25 males and 25 females, all above 15 years of age, and with a mean age of 47.92 years were observed by means of document analysis which emphasized on living situations, occupational exposures, household exposures, smoking history and second hand smoke exposure.

72% of the studied population lived in chawls and slums that are urban congested dwellings resulting in poor hygiene. 22 out of 50 reported of manufacturing units/factories within few blocks of home. 60% of the households did not have separate kitchens making the people living within these households more prone to cooking vapour exposures. 40% people reported of having worked in dusty environment and chemicals were amongst the top most occupational exposures reported. Incense stick was the highest household exposure reported in the studied population. Considerable number of household still used kerosene and wood chullah as cooking fuels, being harmful as a result of incomplete fuel combustion. 54% of the people were exposed to second hand smoke hence proved to be an important environmental hazard.

Lungs can be regarded as a ‘gateway’ between the environment and the human body as lungs are exposed to various indoor and outdoor exposures having an overall effect on the chronic respiratory conditions. Most of the patients attending Respiratory OPD had some environmental predisposing factor.