Chest
Original ResearchAsthmaChanges in Environmental Tobacco Smoke Exposure and Asthma Morbidity Among Urban School Children
Section snippets
Materials and Methods
Data for this analysis come from a large randomized trial22, 23 of supervised asthma therapy that has been previously described in detail. Briefly, children were eligible if they met the following criteria: physician-diagnosed persistent asthma requiring daily controller medication, enrollment in 1 of 36 participating schools, and ability to use a dry-powder inhaler and a peak flowmeter. Children were recruited through local schools, physician offices, and health department clinics and
Results
Table 1 shows the demographic characteristics of the sample at baseline (n = 256). The mean age of children was 11 years (SD, 2.1 years). Fifty-eight percent of children (n = 149) were male, and 90% (n = 230) were black. Eighty percent of the children had moderate persistent asthma. At baseline, 28% of caregivers reported ETS exposure in the home and 19% reported exposure outside of the primary household only. There were no statistically significant differences at baseline among children in the
Discussion
This is the first study to demonstrate a statistically significant association between ETS exposure reduction and fewer episodes of poor asthma control, respiratory-related ED visits, and hospitalizations. Secondhand smoke exposure within this population of urban school children with asthma was 47%. Exposure in the primary home accounted for 60% of the exposure. Over time, ETS exposure decreased from 47 to 40% among the children enrolled in this clinical trial. Children who had any decrease in
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Cited by (0)
This trial was sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (R01HL075043). Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama provided support for the Internet-based Asthma Agents monitoring system. Pulmicort Turbuhalers were provided by AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.
The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Reproduction of this article is prohibited without written permission from the American College of Chest Physicians (www.chestjournal.org/misc/reprints.shtml).