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Review of recent studies
on Children’s HealthAsthma subgroups
To provide national estimates of asthma prevalence in various populations among children
and adolescents, to evaluate environmental risk factors that are independently associated
with current asthma in children; and to identify subgroups at particular risk for current
asthma, Michael A. Rodríguez and colleagues, from the Department of Family Medicine,
University of California and Los Angeles School of Medicine, USA, did a cross-sectional
study of asthmatic patients. Twelve thousand three hundred eighty-eight African American,
Mexican American, and white (non-Latino) children and adolescents, aged 2 months through
16 years, were selected from a systematic random, population-based, nationally
representative sample.
The study concluded that there existed a strong independent association between obesity
and current asthma in children and adolescents, and confirmed previous reports of a
parental history of asthma or hay fever and African American ethnicity as additional
important risk factors.
Archives of Pediatrics and
Adolescent
Medicine 2002, Vol 156, pp 269-275.
Persistent asthma
Fernando D. Martinez, from the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, conducted a
longitudinal study in Melbourne, Australia, to follow childhood asthma into adulthood. The
study followed 401 children who were enrolled at age 7 and was based on their
parents’ responses to a questionnaire concerning their child’s history of
asthma, wheezing episodes, and bronchitis. The study found that patterns of wheezing and
asthma expressed early in life generally persisted into adulthood. Conversely, persistent
airway obstruction in adulthood was associated with more troublesome asthma during
childhood.
Pediatrics 2002,
Vol. 109 No. 2 February, pp. 362-367
Coughing
Kids |
Screening of 225 children in the age group of 1-15 years,
belonging to rural Punjab was done to determine the prevalence, age distribution and
common causes of chronic or recurrent cough in them. Twenty four children were diagnosed
with chronic or recurrent cough, and the most common cause amongst 66.7 per cent of them
was bronchial asthma. A significant association was found with family history of
allergy/asthma and smoking. Daljeet Singh and colleagues from the department of
Pediatrics, Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, Punjab, carried out the
study.
Indian Pediatrics 2002, Vol 39,
January, pp 23-29. |
Fossil fuel threat
Though it has been known for long that particles generated by combustion of fossil fuels
adversely affect health, it is only recently that pediatricians are beginning to question
the health effects of these fossil fuel particles on children. J Grigg, Senior Lecturer in
Pediatric Respiratory Medicine, Leicester Children’s Asthma Centre, Institute for
Lung Health, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK, reviewed various studies carried out
on children and health effects due to fossil fuel pollution and found very strong evidence
between the two. Particles stimulate lung cells to produce proinflammatory responses,
which give, rise to respiratory diseases.
Archives of Disease in
Childhood 2002,
Vol 86, pp 79-830.
Placebo cough syrups
Over the counter (OTC) cough medicines may not really be effective in relieving symptoms
of acute cough. K Schroeder and T Fahey of the Division of Primary Health Care, University
of Bristol, UK, did a systematic review of 15 randomised controlled trials involving 2166
children. Combinations of antihistamine-decongestant and other drug combinations were
found to be no more effective than placebo in relieving symptoms of acute cough. The study
cautions on the recommendation of OTC cough medicines as a first line of treatment for
children with acute cough.
British Medical Journal 2002,
Vol 324, February, p 329.
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