Kids With Asthma Living With Smokers Twice Likely To Get Hospitalized, Study Finds

Asthmatic children who live with smokers face double the risk of getting hospitalised compared to those staying with non-smokers, says a new study.

Scientists at the Mayo Clinic Children's Center looked at 25 cases involving 430,000 children with an average age of 7.6 years.

The study found that apart from hospitalisation, children who are exposed to secondhand smoke face triple the risk of poor lungs, while the risk of wheezing shoots up by 32 percent, says Reuters .

Asthma is among common and chronic diseases impacting children, and there are about 7.1 million children under 18 who are affected. Cigarette smoke as well as respiratory infections and colds, allergens, air pollutants, sudden temperature change, excitement or stress and exercise can lead to the problem, according to the American Lung Association.

"The results of this review serve as a reminder to parents of just how dangerous it is to expose their children to secondhandd smoke," Avni Joshi, senior author and pediatric allergist and immunologist at Mayo Clinic Children's Center, said. "We knew that kids should not be exposed to tobacco, but how bad their asthma is likely to be with tobacco exposure was not clear. This study helped us quantify that risk, and so it informs as well as empowers us with the risk assessment. A child is twice as likely to end up in the hospital with an asthma flare if family members continue to smoke."

The study was published in the Sept. 24 issue of Annals of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology.