FRIDAY, Nov. 12, 2004 (HealthDayNews) -- Respiratory infections, not air pollution, cause a significant worsening of health problems in winter for children with asthma, according to researchers at National Jewish Medical and Research Center.
The three-year study tracked more than 140 children in Denver, aged 6 to 12, with moderate to severe asthma during successive winters. It found that particulate air pollution in winter didn't cause a major worsening of the children's asthma.
However, upper respiratory infections in the winter were associated with a significant decline in lung function, asthma symptoms, and asthma exacerbations.
"In our study, wintertime air pollution had no significant effect on asthma exacerbations or lung function. Upper respiratory functions, however, doubled the chances that a child would suffer an asthma exacerbation and more than quadrupled the odds that a child would suffer asthma symptoms," study author and pediatric allergist Dr. Nathan Rabinovitch said in a prepared statement.
The study appears in the November issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
"It is well known that upper respiratory infections can cause problems for people with asthma, but the air pollution results were a surprise," study co-author Dr. Erwin Gelfand, chairman of pediatrics at National Jewish, said in a prepared statement.
"We believe that careful monitoring of the children allowed us to filter out confounding factors that would have mistakenly suggested a significant health impact of air pollution," Gelfand said.
Rabinovitch said the study findings offer good news for parents of children with asthma.
"Instead of worrying about air pollution, they can focus their efforts on preventing and treating the real wintertime threat to their children's health -- colds and other respiratory infections," Rabinovitch said.
More information
The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about asthma flare-ups.
