Parents can keep asthmatic kids out of the hospital
Parents can keep asthmatic kids out of the hospital
A new Kaiser Permanente study shows that parents can take effective measures at home against asthma flare-ups in their children and prevent the symptoms that send the kids to the hospital or emergency department."Asthma is the most common cause of hospitalization among American children, and it has become more prevalent in the past 10 years," says Tracy A. Lieu, RN, MPH, lead scientist in the study. Lieu is a pediatrician at Kaiser Permanente Oakland (CA) and a health services researcher with Kaiser Permanente’s Division of Research.
The Kaiser Permanente study compared 508 children with asthma who were hospitalized or visited the emergency department during a six-month period in 1995 with 990 children who did not go to the hospital or emergency department during the same six months. Children were matched for age, gender, and number of prior hospitalizations.
The results revealed that the parents of children who stayed out of the hospital or emergency department were much more likely to have a written asthma management plan, to wash bed sheets in hot water at least twice a month, and to start or increase medication when the child came down with a cold or flu.
"The study makes it clear that early intervention by parents at home is strongly linked with a lower risk that an asthma flare-up will end up in the hospital or emergency department. The strongest effect was associated with the management plan, which simply tells parents what symptoms to look for and what steps to take if the asthma is getting worse."
The study, titled "Outpatient Management Practices Associated with Reduced Risk of Pediatric Asthma Hospitalization and Emergency Department Visits," will be published in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, later this year.
The California Division of Kaiser Permanente in Oakland is a prepaid HMO serving almost 5 million members throughout the state.
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