Peak Expiratory Flow Rate and its variations in normal school going children aged 9 to 15 years.

Among various pulmonary function tests used to assess the functioning of lungs, peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) measurement is simple, reproducible and reliable way of judging the degree of airway obstruction in various obstructive pulmonary diseases like asthma. This study was conducted in various schools of rural and urban areas of Faridkot district of Punjab, India on one thousand normal healthy school going children of age group of 9 to 15 years. Characteristics of study population like socioeconomic status, exposure to tobacco smoke, participation in outdoor sports, type of cooking fuel used at home etc. was noted in proformas. Readings were taken in three different seasons over a period of one-year to observe seasonal variations. The mean age of boys (498) and girls (502) from rural (500) and urban (500) areas was 11.948±1.220 years. Boys had higher mean PEFR value than girls (p<0.05). Mean PEFR of boys was more than girls at a given age group, at given height interval and weight (p <0.05). PEFR increased in both boys and girls with increase in age, height and weight (p<0.05). There was no significant difference in PEFR values of children living in rural and urban areas (p= 0.681) Children belonging to different socioeconomic statuses had significant difference in PEFR values (p value=0.008). PEFR was significantly higher in children participating in outdoor sports than those who didn’t participate in any sports(p value=0.005). No significant variation of PEFR was seen with season, exposure to tobacco smoke and cooking fuel used at home.