Plasma retinol level, vitamin A supplementation and acute respiratory infections in children of 1-5 years old in a developing country. Respiratory Diseases Working Group.

Study Objective: To evaluate the relationship between vitamin A supplementation, plasma retinol level (PRL) and incidence, severity and duration of acute respiratory infect ions (ARI) in children 1-5 years old.

Design And Setting: A one year prospective randomized intervention study from June 1989 to May 1990 in Cikutra, a suburb of Bandung, Indonesia.

Subjects And Measurements: Out of almost 2000 children aged 12-54 months, 269 were selected by stratified randomization.

Total serum IgE and eosinophil count in children with and without a history of asthma, wheezing, or atopy in an urban community in Indonesia. The Respiratory Disease Working Group.

Aim: The objectives of the study were to assess total serum IgE and eosinophil count in a random sample of 20% of the children between 12 and 54 months old in a suburban community of Bandung, Indonesia, and to investigate a possible relationship between these values and atopy, asthma or wheezing and parasite infestation.

Methods: Two hundred sixty-nine children were examined at the Integrated Primary Health Care Unit, and the parents or guardians were interviewed with the use of a standardized questionnaire.

Results: The overall median value of IgE was 436 IU/ml (range, 18 to 9707 IU/ml); almost 94% of the children showed an IgE value of more than 100 IU/ml, and 29% showed a value of more than 1000 IU/ml.

Vitamin A and acute respiratory infections.

By questionnaire we studied the occurrence of acute respiratory infections (ARI) in 1961 children between 0 and 5 years old from a total of 3225 families in Cikutra, Bandung. In 38.7% of them 200.

Risk factors in smoking habits of high school students.

Although the hazards of smoking is well known, the number of smokers among high school students is still high. There are many factors influencing these students to start smoking. This study was conducted to discover the size of the population of smokers among high school students is still high.