Asthma from passive smoking in the home limit the interest of providing steroids to school

A program based on the provision of inhaled corticosteroids in school allows among children with moderate to severe persistent asthma, reduce symptoms, and absenteeism, but only if they are not exposed to smoking at home with their parents, shows a study published in the journal "Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine."

While the recommendations advocate daily medication for children with moderate to severe persistent asthma, it is frequently observed poor adherence or lack of treatment, say the members of the team led by Dr. Jill Halterman, of University of Rochester. That is why this group of doctors sought to evaluate the impact of a program of support for asthma at school, of putting daily provision of asthmatic children treated with inhaled corticosteroids background .

This study included 180 asthmatic children aged 3 to 7 years, attending 54 schools in the city of Rochester. Half of them have benefited from this program the schooling of the disease, while the other half, the management was done by the conventional method (control group).

Monitoring carried out every three months during a school year, has highlighted that children who received the curriculum of asthma experienced more days without asthma symptoms during the first months winter (average 9.2 days over two weeks) than children in the control group (7.3 days).

Furthermore, comparison of data collected in the control group, children who received inhaled corticosteroids school less missed school because of their asthma, while parents reported a greater improvement in their quality of life.

However, after an analysis that the authors are aware of the test results revealed that the curriculum process has a significant effect only in children who are not exposed to smoking at home with their parents.

In this case, the benefit of corticosteroids given at school is even more significant in relation to taking a conventional charge, also reducing the number of days during which the child has to use medication to treat seizures and number of medical consultations following a crisis.

These results suggest that a program to reduce asthma attacks at school provides assistance to children and their parents in the management of this disease, although the smoke cancels the benefits of better compliance, the authors conclude that say that other studies are needed to assess the impact of cigarette smoke on anti-asthma treatment.

In an accompanying editorial, Dr. David Bundy and his colleagues at the University of North Carolina, saying that the benefits of this program seem modest, suggest to involve education for management of asthma .