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Parents’ expectations can affect children’s asthma control
Children with asthma whose parents have high expectations for symptom control had better controlled asthma than kids whose parents had low expectations, according to a study in Pediatrics. Researchers from Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention at Harvard Medical School, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Boston University conducted telephone interviews with more than 700 parents of children 2 to 12 years old who had persistent asthma and received care at Neighborhood Health Plan and Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates in Boston. Parents were asked questions to determine their beliefs about their child’s symptoms, whether the symptoms could be controlled, and how asthma might affect their child’s activities, as well as questions about other family concerns. In multivariate analyses, suboptimal asthma control was associated with low parental expectations for symptom control and high levels of worry about competing household priorities. In addition, children whose parents had a set time for administering asthma medications were more likely to use their asthma controller medications appropriately.

Inhaled corticosteroids may benefit more than just airways
Older women with asthma who use inhaled corticosteroids are significantly less likely to die from any cause over a five-year period than women not using inhaled corticosteroids, according to a study in Chest. Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, analyzed the results from 2,671 women with persistent asthma who participated in the Nurses' Health Study and responded to a 1998 supplementary asthma questionnaire. During the following five years, 3.3 percent of the respondents died: 22 of cardiovascular causes, 31 from cancer, and 34 from other causes. According to the study authors, using inhaled corticosteroids at the outset, compared with not using inhaled inhaled corticosteroids, was associated with a 42-percent reduced likelihood of dying from any cause and a 65-percent reduced likelihood of dying from a heart-related cause. Using inhaled corticosteroids did not significantly reduce risk of dying from cancer or other causes.

Wheezing with rhinovirus may increase kids’ asthma risk
Young children who wheeze when they have rhinovirus infection are at greater risk of developing asthma later, according to a study in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health followed 259 newborns at increased risk for asthma, because one or both parents had allergies or asthma, for 6 years. Previous research had shown that infants who wheeze with viral illnesses are more likely to develop asthma. But, it had not been clear which types of viruses produced the wheezing associated with this risk. At 6 years old, 28 percent of the children had asthma, with a disproportionate amount of them having wheezed from rhinovirus. Children who wheezed with rhinovirus during their first year were nearly three times as likely to have asthma at age 6, compared with children who wheezed with RSV, who did not have increased asthma risk. The older the child was when wheezing with rhinovirus occurred, the greater the affect.

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