Altering home environment controls asthma

Cockroach extermination and using air cleaners to reduce dust, smoke and other indoor allergens might help in reducing symptoms of asthma in children.Researchers from the Baltimore, Maryland-based Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found that one could change the environment in inner-city homes. Reducing the levels of allergens at home helps in reducing symptoms of asthma in children living in those.In the study, researchers created a multifaceted intervention that combined strategies to reduce children's exposure to allergens and other asthma triggers. They randomly divided 100 children with asthma, who were 6 to 12 years old, into a treatment group or a comparison group. The treatment, or study group, received home-based education, cockroach extermination as needed, rodent extermination, allergen-proof fitted mattress and pillow coverings and a high-efficiency air cleaner; while the comparison group received none of these interventions. The children underwent home evaluations six months after the start of the study, home and clinic evaluations at 12 months and quarterly telephone interviews.At the start of the study, 54 percent of the children said they experienced daytime asthma symptoms and 39 percent said they had experienced nighttime symptoms at some point during the previous two weeks. About one third of the children had visited a doctor for their asthma symptoms within the previous three months and a similar, albeit slightly lower, proportion took daily medications to control their symptoms. By the end of the 12-month intervention, levels of household dust and smoke, which has consistently been shown to be primarily due to smoking or cooking - decreased by up to 39 percent in the study group, but increased in the comparison group. Cockroach allergen levels saw a 51% drop in the study group.Nighttime symptoms, emergency department use and other measures of asthma severity were not significantly different between the two groups. However, the treatment group experienced a decrease in daytime asthma symptoms, while the comparison group experienced an increase.There may be several explanations for why the intervention did not provide more health effects, including problems with the study's design, or with their inclusion of children with mild asthma and no evidence of allergies.Researchers stressed that the parents of children with asthma should not neglect regular medical care and only make changes to their home environment to reduce their child's symptoms. This is not a substitute for medicine but is a good supplement.These findings may be important to public health departments. Considering that some poor people may not be able to afford air cleaners or cockroach extermination, these are two things that public health departments might put money into.