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Following asthma guidelines offsets negative impact of dogs, cats, secondhand smoke
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Removing dogs, cats and secondhand smoke from the homes of patients with asthma may not be necessary if certain asthma guidelines are followed, according to a study being presented later this month at CHEST 2018.
“Environmental exposures such as secondhand cigarette [smoke] and/or animals such as cats and/or dogs are suggested to impact asthma control,” Shahid Sheikh MD, FCCP, of the pulmonary medicine and allergy/asthma section at Nationwide Children's Hospital, and colleagues wrote. “The aim of this study was to document if environmental exposures [have] a role in asthma control among children whose asthma is managed per [National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (EPR-3)] guidelines.”
Of the 395 patients aged 2 to 17 years studied, 93% had either moderate or mild persistent asthma and 80% were exposed to either secondhand smoke, a dog or a cat at home. Every 3 to 6 months for 3 years, the children and teenagers had their acute care needs, symptom control and Asthma Control Test assessed.
Sheikh and colleagues found that regardless of whether an environmental exposure was present, patients improved significantly from baseline (P < 0.05) and improvements continued throughout the study.
“Once asthma guidelines are followed, environmental exposure to pets or secondhand tobacco smoke were not significant factors in overall asthma improvement over time,” Sheikh and colleagues concluded. “Asthma guidelines need to be followed to have better asthma control over time.” – by Janel Miller
Reference: Sheikh S, et al. Impact of environmental exposures (second hand smoking and/or pets) on long-term asthma control in children. Presented at: CHEST Annual Meeting; Oct. 6-10, 2018; San Antonio.
Disclosures : The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.