Children with asthma are not enough sport

Too many asthmatic children have insufficient physical activity, especially because their parents think-wrongly-that the exercise is a risk for young patients, U.S. doctors lament in "Pediatrics" magazine.

Asthma can play sports, and even any interest in doing so to the extent that endurance sports such as swimming, for example, allow them to develop their respiratory capacity and lessen the symptoms of the disease, remember Dr. David Lang, who works for the National Institutes of Health, and colleagues from Johns Hopkins children's center.

But the benefits that sport can bring to children with asthma remain unknown, these data indicate that American doctors have collected in a telephone survey of 137 parents and 106 young asthmatic children do not suffer from this disease,

Indeed, various indicators have enabled the authors to see that young asthmatics are less active, with a duration of 116 minutes of daily activity, against 146 minutes for the other children. In addition, an asthmatic child in five (21%) spends less than 30 minutes daily to the practice of physical activity, the minimum activity recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) threshold - while physical inactivity was less common among children who are not affected by this disease (9%). Analysis of weekly physical activity confirmed this observation, with nearly a quarter of young patients (23%) active less than three days per week, against "only" 11% of children do not suffer from asthma.

Among the explanatory factors identified by the team of American doctors include in particular the severity of the disease: children with moderate or severe asthma (including those who control their disease) are more likely to be sedentary than those affected by a mild form.

Misconceptions that are still parents also play an important role in this situation. Nearly a fifth of all parents surveyed think that exercise is dangerous for asthmatic children and a quarter of parents of asthmatic children expressed concern that their child develops a crisis after a session of physical activity.

Fears and reluctance of parents directly involved in sedentary asthmatic children, it seems important that pediatricians advise (but also all those in contact with young patients, such as teachers, for example) of sport for young asthmatics , say the authors.

Especially since this tactic proves effective: according to the survey responses, the children whose parents believe that the practice of physical exercise is beneficial are more likely to be active for more than two hours a day.