Abstract
Introduction: Pediatric asthma is a chronic respiratory disease that may affect daily activities and quality of life. This study aimed to determine the characteristics of pediatric asthma patients attending a general hospital outpatient clinic in Padang, Indonesia. Methods: A retrospective descriptive study was conducted using medical records of pediatric patients diagnosed with asthma from January 2020 to December 2022. Consecutive sampling was used, and 113 eligible medical records were included from 197 records reviewed. We analyzed demographic characteristics, asthma risk factors, disease severity, clinical manifestations, oral medication use, and inhalation device use. Results: Most patients were male (57.5%) and aged 5–11 years (64.6%), resided in Padang (91.2%), had health insurance (81.4%), and attended the pediatric outpatient clinic more than five times (54.9%). Among documented risk factors, a history of atopy was recorded in 46.0% of patients, while cigarette smoke was the most frequently documented allergen (39.8%). Intermittent asthma predominated (88.5%), with cough (97.3%) and shortness of breath (84.1%) as the most common clinical manifestations. Inhalation device use was not documented in 65.5% of patients, and most patients did not receive inhalation therapy. Conclusion: Pediatric asthma mostly affected school-aged boys and was classified as intermittent asthma. These findings show that oral medications were used more frequently than inhalation therapy, and inhalation device use was often not documented.