Childhood Asthma News and Research

RSS

Childhood asthma link shows it is never too soon for mums to quit smoking

Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk for asthma and wheezing in early childhood, even if children are not exposed to smoke after birth, a European study shows.

21 Aug 2012

Egg allergy treatment for children: an interview with Dr Robert Wood

The tendency to get allergies is a fairly general one, which is mostly inherited – it tends to run in families. There are several foods that are most common for children to become allergic to: milk, egg and peanuts in most countries are the most common food allergies.

23 Jul 2012

Vitamin D deficiency may impair lung function in asthmatic children treated with budesonide

Vitamin D deficiency is associated with poorer lung function in asthmatic children treated with inhaled corticosteroids, according to a new study from researchers in Boston.

14 Jul 2012

‘Strong evidence’ for causal link between parental smoking, childhood asthma

Parental smoking is associated with symptoms of asthma in exposed children, report researchers who found the more parents smoked, the greater the risk to their children.

25 Jun 2012

MCAN executive director supports federal action plan to reduce asthma disparities

During an event with leaders from three U.S. federal agencies and the White House, the executive director of the Merck Childhood Asthma Network, Inc. (MCAN), Dr. Floyd Malveaux, expressed strong support for the government's new coordinated action plan to reduce racial and ethnic asthma disparities. The release of the new report came on the last day of National Asthma Awareness Month.

2 Jun 2012

First Edition: June 1, 2012

Today's headlines include reports about the latest health policy developments on Capitol Hill and news on the health insurance marketplace.

1 Jun 2012

Exposure to PVC flooring may increase phthalate uptake in infants

Results from a Swedish study suggest that exposure to polyvinylchloride flooring can increase the uptake of phthalates in infants.

30 May 2012

Childhood obesity risk may be increased by caesarean section delivery

Caesarean section delivery may double the risk of subsequent childhood obesity, finds research published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.

24 May 2012

Benefits of ICS treatment vary among children with differing demographic, clinical characteristics

A further analysis of a previously published National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) funded study of children with mild persistent asthma reports the relative benefits of inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) treatment varies among children with differing demographic and clinical characteristics.

23 May 2012

Innate differences in immunity can be detected at birth

Innate differences in immunity can be detected at birth, according to new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. And babies with a better innate response to viruses have fewer respiratory illnesses in the first year of life.

18 May 2012

Early administration of corticosteroids reduces ED stay for children with asthma

Children with moderate or severe asthma attacks who are treated with systemic corticosteroids during the first 75 minutes of triage in the Emergency Department (ED) were 16% less likely to be admitted to hospital.

5 Apr 2012

Local air pollution may explain neighborhood differences in rates of childhood asthma

Where a child lives can greatly affect his or her risk for asthma. According to a new study by scientists at Columbia University, neighborhood differences in rates of childhood asthma may be explained by varying levels of air pollution from trucks and residential heating oil. Results appear online in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology.

28 Mar 2012

Investigators identify proteins that may indicate fetus at risk for UTI-induced prematurity

Investigators in The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital have developed a mouse model in which a mother's urinary tract infection negatively affects the offspring, an occurrence anecdotally observed in humans. Using this first-of-its-kind model, they have identified proteins in the blood that may indicate whether such an infection might stunt fetal growth.

23 Mar 2012

Consensus across studies promises to enhance NIH-supported asthma clinical research

A consortium of federal agencies and nongovernmental organizations has published a report proposing a set of common measures and data-collection methods for use in asthma clinical research.

3 Mar 2012

New outcome measures may reduce disparities in children with asthma

Newly proposed asthma outcome measures will help standardize and improve results from the hundreds of millions of dollars the National Institutes of Health (NIH) spends annually to study asthma, according to the Merck Childhood Asthma Network, Inc. (MCAN), the nation's only organization focused solely on childhood asthma.

3 Mar 2012

Report highlights gaps in health IT implementation

A report from the Bipartisan Policy Center noted that gaps persist in the nation's efforts to transition from a paper-based to a computer-based health records system.

30 Jan 2012

Daily inhaled steroids comparable to use of intermittent steroid treatment for wheezing

Pediatricians often treat young children who have frequent bouts of wheezing with a daily dose of an inhaled steroid to keep asthma symptoms at bay. But results of a recent study are likely to change that.

29 Nov 2011

Research roundup: Cutting speciality care by raising co-payments; Asthma diagnosis and insurance coverage; GAO on early retirees

Mayo Clinic Employees Responded To New Requirements For Cost Sharing By Reducing Possibly Unneeded Health Services Use -- Researchers at the Mayo Clinic examined the effects of changes in the clinic's self-funded health plan "to decrease the use of potentially inappropriate health care services and foster a deliver system centered on primary care."

11 Nov 2011

Effective management of childhood asthma should extend beyond doctor's office: Study

Effective management of childhood asthma should extend beyond the doctor's office into communities, homes and schools where children spend most of their time dealing with the disease, according to a collection of newly published studies.

10 Nov 2011

Health insurance may lead to increased asthma diagnosis in children

Providing health insurance to more children could lead to diagnosing additional cases of mild or intermittent asthma, a new study shows. Some who treat childhood asthma say this could increase the number of kids receiving medication to control their asthma symptoms and seeking care for asthma flares.

28 Oct 2011