Prevention of asthma attacks: careful not to do anything!

Parents of asthmatic children, they generally want to avoid the onset of crises their offspring fail too often the most important preventive measures, the authors deplore a U.S. study published in the "Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology ".

A team of researchers from the University of Michigan wanted to determine what were the most common preventive measures implemented by the families of 896 young asthmatics aged 2 to 12 years.

Michael Cabana and colleagues therefore asked the parents of these young participants to determine their knowledge of the factors triggering asthma attacks in children and to identify the measures they had eventually taken to control these parameters.

According to testimonies collected, 80% of parents know at least one triggering asthma attacks in children and 82% of these parents "informed" factor have implemented specific measures to ensure that their children are are facing.

But only half (49%) of 1788 actions proved likely to show beneficial, say the authors. Most often, parents are working to limit the exposure of young patients to dust, dust mites or animals, they specify.

As for the other half of the preventive measures taken by the parents of young asthmatics, some are not included in the current guidelines because their effectiveness has not been demonstrated and others, directed against a different triggering factor involved crises in their child may not show effective.

For example, some parents of children with asthma sensitive to pollen reported having disposed of the mattress in the bed of their children (protection against dust mite allergens) as they do not close the windows of their homes and thus let in the pollens responsible for the crises.

Some of the actions have proven even potentially dangerous, the authors explain. Thus, some parents, thinking to do well, have put a humidifier in the room of their child sensitive to house dust mite allergens, while a moist environment encourages the proliferation of these arachnids

On the other hand, a quarter of parents surveyed indicated that they had taken no precautions to limit the exposure of asthmatic children to smoke cigarettes a living under the same roof smoking. As passive smoking worsens asthma symptoms in children, and knowing that it can be difficult to quit smoking, U.S. researchers warn that we should not only smoking in another room and that is the child ': you have to go outside.

For authors, doctors and health professionals should focus on informing parents of young asthmatics triggers of asthma attacks and the various means of preventing young patients exposures, emphasizing the fact that it is not necessary for it to invest in different "miracle products" expensive.