What is it about?
Most childhood asthma studies showed evidence of lower asthma prevalence in children living in rural compared to urban areas. Reasons for these difference are unknown but environmental factors have mostly been implicated without investigation of potential diagnostic explanations.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
Using a combination of symptom history, objective lung function assessments, and exercise challenge testing, this study provides evidence that the often reported lower prevalence of asthma in rural compared to urban areas may be due, in part, to asthma under-diagnosis in rural areas.
Perspectives
I believe establishing an accurate diagnosis of asthma is important in order to guide therapy and improve patient care. This article makes it more important and necessary for parents to insist on accurate diagnosis of their child's respiratory conditions. The central message is, if a child is wheezing, coughing, or experiencing shortness of breath, parents should insist on having objective clinical assessments completed for accurate assessment of their child’s respiratory condition when they see their physician. This article won the University of Saskatchewan 2018 Life and Health Sciences Best Paper in Social and Population Health Award. The award was based on the article's impacts in reshaping asthma diagnosis and in the investigation of geographical variation in childhood asthma burden.
Oluwafemi Oluwole
University of Saskatchewan
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Asthma diagnosis among children along an urban-rural gradient, Journal of Asthma, February 2018, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/02770903.2017.1407335.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
