The Study of the Effects of Dust Storm on the Incidence of Respiratory Disease among Female High School Students in Zabol City

Dust deposition phenomenon is one of the most important environmental crisis in places close to desert or dry areas. One of the environmental issues in the eastern regions of Iran is the activity of dust storms and aerosols in the atmosphere of cities. Therefore, this study aims to determine the effects of dust on the prevalence of respiratory diseases among the second-grade high school female students in Zabol City.

In this descriptive-analytic research, 300 female students of the second grade of 5 high schools in the Zabol city were selected randomly in the academic year of 2018-19. Data is collected through demographic and standard respiratory diseases questionnaire and inserted intoSPSS21 software and analyzed via descriptive-analytical statistics.

The results revealed that the prevalence of respiratory diseases and allergy symptoms are higher on stormy daysamong the students (p value < 0.05). Besides, there is a statistically significant correlation between the students' educational level, the presence of respiratory diseases, the Chest pressure and allergy symptoms
(p value < 0.05). The most common respiratory diseases in the mentioned cases are related to year eleven. Moreover, there is a significant relationship between lower grade (or Less GPA) and respiratory distress (p value > 0.05).

Due to the results of this study, most of the students have breathing difficulties on stormy days and the effects of dust were quite clear on them. In addition to the necessity of remedial actions of dust control in the Sistan province, screening and monitoring breathing difficulties among students should be considered in their health control schedule.