Asthma:  Disparities Growing Between Black Children and White

A study at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago showed that gaps between black and white children in treatment of asthma and mortality from the disease are growing.  Black children are hospitalized for asthma four times more frequently than white children, and are five times more likely to die, despite the establishment of several national programs to improve asthma treatment and prevention.  For more details, see MedPage at:  http://www.medpagetoday.com/AllergyImmunology/Asthma/tb2/2648 .  The journal citation is:  Gupta RS et al. The widening black/white gap in asthma hospitalizations and mortality. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. 2006; 117(2):351-358.

Women with Asthma At Greater Risk of Premature Birth, Low Birth Weight

Preganant women with asthma in Manitoba in 1995 were three times more likely to have a premature birth and four times more likely to have a baby weighing less than 1,000 grams, even if they have no asthma symptoms in the year before giving birth.  There is evidence to suggest that airway smooth muscle hypercontractilityin the child might be related to uterine smooth muscle contractility in the mother.   These preliminary results were presented at the meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology in Miami Beach in March.  For more details, see MedPage at:  http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pulmonary/Asthma/tb2/2791.

Asthmatic Children Don't Use Enough Medicine

When comparing patient self-reports of medication use and actual use, researchers found that children tended to use only 25 to 50 percent of the amount of medication prescribed.  Children are reluctant to use the medication because of the side effects, and parents do not enforce treatment because they are afraid the children will become dependent on the inhalers.  In addition, asthma is an intermittent disease for many, and patients are less willing to comply with prescribed medication when they have no symptoms.  These preliminary results were presented at the meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology in Miami Beach in March.  For more details, see MedPage at:  http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pulmonary/Asthma/tb2/2792.

Antibiotics in First Twelve Months of Life Double the Risk of Later Asthma

Asthma has become the most common chronic disease of childhood, and the increase has coincided with the increased use of antibiotics in young children.  A meta-analysis of four prospective studies and four retrospective studies suggests that the two phenomena may be causally related, although it is also likely that causality may run the other way -- that is, children with asthma are more susceptible to infection, leading to greater use of antibiotics.  These preliminary results were presented at the meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology in Miami Beach in March.  For more details, see MedPage at: http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pulmonary/Asthma/tb2/2852.

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