Children and Asthma Studies Released Today

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Jennifer Donovan, Science Information Officer - 504-670-8502 (Press Room) Rochester, NY

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Kevin P. Kane, Public Relations - 716-338-4573

April 27, 1998

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE ON MAY 3, 1998

CHILDREN AND ASTHMA STUDIES RELEASED TODAY

ROCHESTER, NEW YORK -- The increased risk of asthma in black children is due more to where they live than to their race, and air cleaners that remove tobacco smoke decrease the risk of asthma complications, according to two studies presented by Rochester pediatrician Andrew Aligne, M.D., at today's Pediatric Academic Societies' Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

Aligne, lead author on both studies, is an attending pediatrician at Rochester General Hospital and an instructor and research fellow with the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.

"The fact that data suggests that the higher prevalence of asthma among Black children in the USA is not attributable to race, or to poverty per se, is exciting," Aligne said. "Instead, it can be linked to aspects of the physical environment in which black children are much more likely to live than whites, that being the inner city. Identifying and protecting children from specific aspects of this environment may correct persisting racial disparities in the prevalence and severity of asthma."

"We also know that smoke is a potent asthma trigger," Aligne said. "In the second study, we placed two air cleaners, one in the bedroom and one in the television room, in homes with smokers and children with asthma, ages 2 to 5 years. Overall, we found a 75 percent decrease in the level of airborne nicotine, plus a decrease in the by-products of nicotine in the children's hair and urine - a marker for smoke exposure. These devices could prove useful for the prevention of asthma and other illnesses caused or exacerbated by passive smoking."

Aligne's study on air cleaners was also presented at the annual educational meeting of the American Lung Association/American Thoracic Society on April 28.

Methodology

For the first study, Aligne used data from the Child Health Supplement to the 1988 National Health Interview Survey (most recent available) which examined parent-reported current asthma among a nationally representative sample of 17,110 children ages 0 to 17 years.

For the air-cleaner study, the author used a double-blind method of placing either working or placebo air units in the Rochester homes of 36 children with asthma during a three-week period in winter 1997, so that all subjects were usually indoors with the windows closed. Weekly visits were made using symptom questionnaires, nicotine measuring devices, and urine and hair specimens.
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