HUBUNGAN RENTANG TANGAN DAN FUNGSI PARU PADA ANAK ASMA

Abstract

Background: Asthma is a disease that was often found in school-aged children. Pulmonary function tests (PFT) used in the diagnosis and treatment of asthma. Height has been used to predict pulmonary function test values. Height of the children sometimes couldn’t be measured due to skeletal abnormality. Arm span was known to be an alternative of height in predicting lung function. Aim: To determine the relationship between arm span and lung function in schoolage children with a history of asthma in Semarang. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in March-June 2015. The subjects were evaluated using the ISAAC questionnaire and measured directly to obtain the data. The statistical test used was Pearson test and Spearman's test and also linear regression test. Results: The research subjects were 30 children with a history of asthma aged 6 to 12 years. FEV1 and PEFR have shown a significant correlation with arm span. Regression analysis resulted regression equations to determine pulmonary function test values from arm span in asthmatic children aged 6 to 12 years such as FVC = 0.025 * ArmSpan-1676, FEV1 = 0:23 * ArmSpan-1482, and PEFR = 0.043 * ArmSpan-2592. Conclusion: FVC, FEV1 and PEFR showed significant positive correlation with arm span in children with asthma. The regression equation predictive value in lung function from arm span was not accurate enough to be applied for all children in Indonesia with a history of asthma due to small sample size. Keywords: Asthma, arm span, school-age children, pulmonary function tests