Palermo Centre
| Phase One | Phase Two | Phase Three | |||
| Centre: | Palermo, Italy ( Western Europe ) | ||||
| Principal Investigator: | Dr Stefania La Grutta | ||||
| Age Groups: | 13-14 | Timeframe: | February 2002 to May 2002 | ||
| Sampling Frame: | 13-14yr: All schools in the city of Palermo | ||||
Personnel
Personnel
Dr Stefania La Grutta
University of Palermo
Professor of Pediatric Allergology, School of Pediatrics
Palermo
Italy
Roles:
- Phase Three Principal Investigator for Palermo
Palermo is a metropolitan city in the South of Italy, and no previous epidemiological study about allergies and asthma in children was done to evaluate the prevalence. For this reason we considered very important to join ISAAC through participation in the study SIDRIA-2 (Studio Italiano Disturbi Respiratori Infanzia Ambiente) in 2002, the italian section of ISAAC study. We thought it was a huge step that would let us have real data about asthma and allergies prevalence in our country and give us the opportunity of comparing our data with the data of other countries involved in this study.
In Phase Three Palermo was the only centre, it is the capital city of Sicily which has a population of about 900,000 inhabitants. In the whole country we are about 5,000,000 inhabitants. In the study 1015 children participated in the 6-7 years group and 1287 in the 13-14 years group. It was very important to have so a great number of participants to have a better idea of the prevalence of asthma and allergies in Sicily.
Pediatricians were aware about the importance of ISAAC and our data by attending national congresses and courses of MCE related with these diseases. They are now more committed with the management of asthma, which is contributing to a better treatment of the patients.
We wish to thank all parents, children and school staff who participated in the surveys and also our fieldworkers team for their enthusiasm and effort thoughout the study.
