Factors associated with abnormal lung function among university students in Kigali-Rwanda, case of UR-CMHS

Abstract

Background: Determinants of abnormal lung function among students living in hostels have not been evaluated. University students commonly come into contact with residential pollution and others different factors in their dorms, which are known to increase the risk of respiratory illnesses including Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases (COPD). COPD are estimated to have contributed to 3 million deaths worldwide which is 5% of all fatalities; and over 90% of these deaths occurred in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs), with a global prevalence of 10.3%. The recent study in Rwanda found COPD prevalence of 4.5%. This study aims to find the “Factors associated with abnormal lung function among university students in Kigali-Rwanda”.

Methods: The minimum sample size were 220 subjects after the exclusion criterion to be used in this study. Validated questions were used to assess self-reported physical health status like, cough, fatigue, respiratory problems. Spirometry for lung function tests was used to identify abnormalities as the measurement of outcome variable. A typical statistical data analysis method, descriptive, bivariate and multivariate analysis were employed to assess the degree to which a dependent variable and one or even more independent variables have a linear relationship.

Results: The analysis of this study showed that 119(54.09%) participants were female while 101(45.91%) were male, and the prevalence of abnormal lung function were 20.9%. Risk factors for abnormal lung function were found to be building characteristics such as frequency of window opening, freshness of air in the room, and physical wellbeing (OR:4.5; CI: 1.771744-11.45793, P=0.002) were 4.5 times of having abnormal lung function for those who reported poor compared with those who said excellent within specified period before the survey.

Conclusion: This is the first research on abnormal lung function conducted in a Rwandan university residence. The prevalence of abnormal lung function showed that, it is the problems for public health which needed a great consideration for the associated factors mainly in the enclosed microenvironment like in the university campuses where students spend much of their time to alleviate the proportion of abnormal lung function.