Abstract

Background: Bronchial asthma is a common chronic disease but is often diagnosed and treated late, especially in children under 2 years of age. Objective: To describe the clinical and subclinical characteristics and explore several factors related to the severity of asthma in children under 2 years of age. Methods: Cross-sectional description of 98 pediatric patients diagnosed with asthma during the period from August 2022 to March 2023 at the Pediatric Center, Hue Central Hospital. Results: The majority of pediatric patients over 12 months (76.5%), occurred in males 2.7 times more than females and mainly in cities (54.1%). Children with moderate, severe, and critical asthma were 78.6%; 21.4%; and primary asthma accounted for 78.6%; and 16.3% of secondary and 5.1% of tertiary children, respectively. Up to 33.3% of children had uncontrolled bronchial asthma. 14.3% of cases had superinfection. Peripheral white blood cell count increased by 38.0% and CRP increased in 57.0% of cases. Factors associated with acute bronchial asthma exacerbation are personal history of allergy, tobacco smoke exposure, superinfection. Factors related to the severity of asthma are the severity of acute bronchial asthma attack, age of first diagnosis of Bronchial asthma, history of acute bronchiolitis, and exposure to tobacco smoke. Conclusion: The rate of hospitalization due to severe and critical bronchial asthma in children under 2 years old is still high. One of the factors thought to be related to this rate is a history of atopic dermatitis and pulmonary superinfection. Exposure to cigarette smoke not only causes severe acute asthma attacks but also worsens the severity of asthma.