Abstract
Background:- Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways. About 300 million people worldwide were affected by asthma leading to approximately 250,000 deaths per year. The active chemical present in Khat could have a bronchodilator effect like that of catecholamine. The present study aims at determining the effect of khat chewing on bronchial asthma.
Methods:- A comparative cross sectional study was conducted in JUSH Adult Chest Clinic on170 asthmatic patients with a 1.4 to 1 ratio of non-chewer to chewer between November 2010 and January 2010.Interviewer administered questionnaire, patient history and pulmonary function test using Spirometer was used to collect the data.
Result:- of 170 asthmatic patients, 72 were khat chewers and 98 were non chewers. Frequent asthmatic symptoms was seen on 23(31.9%) of chewers and 43(43.9%) of non chewer (χ2=2.488, p=0.11). A less frequent use of β2 agonist was observed on 42(58.3%) of chewers and 53(54.1%) of non chewer patients (χ2=12.678, p=0.12). Less frequent night time awake and chewing status was found to be positively associated [AOD=2.633,CI(1.778,3.059)].The mean predicted personal best of forced expiratory volume in one second(FEV1%) for chewers and non chewer was 62% and 46% respectively while their PEFR% was 40% and 26% respectively.
Conclusion:- apart from psycho stimulating prosperities, khat has moderate potential benefit for the improvement of episodes of asthma attack. This study showed that chewer asthmatic patients had relatively better PEFR and also relatively lesser recurrent night time awake due to asthmatic attack.
- © 2013 ERS
