SAN DIEGO, Mar 08 (Reuters Health) -- Parents who quit smoking indoors can
significantly improve their children's asthma symptoms, even if the parents are
unable to quit smoking entirely.
"Pediatricians and allergists all tell patients to stop smoking, but any
information on that is based on retrospective and parental reports on smoking.
There really hasn't been any hard data," said Dr. Jane El-Dahr of Tulane Medical
Center in New Orleans, Louisiana.
According to 1994 data, 38% of children aged 5 and under live with at least
one smoker in their homes, El-Dahr said. Cigarette smoke is known to aggravate
asthmatic symptoms.
For this study, reported at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and
Immunology annual meeting, 16 households were recruited, with 17 children
completing the study. Eleven homes had one smoker and the rest had two. The
smokers reported consuming at least one-half pack of cigarettes daily inside the
house.
Once the parents' smoking behavior and the children's symptoms were recorded
over several months, the smokers were given their choice of over-the-counter
smoking cessation aids to begin using for 1 month. Then, for the next 3 months,
they were encouraged to quit completely, but otherwise urged not to smoke inside
the house or near the children.
To monitor what the smokers were actually doing, the researchers had the
parents keep logs of their smoking behavior. They also measured airborne
nicotine levels with sensors placed high on two walls of the home, and they
measured cotinine, a metabolite unique to nicotine, in saliva to determine
whether people were smoking or not.
Only two parents completely quit smoking, yet overall allergy symptoms
significantly improved in the children. Days with normal sleep increased from
85% to 91%, days with normal activity increased from 90% to 95%, days without
cough from 70% to 87%, and days without wheeze from 78% to 85%. The median
improvement in lung function scores was 11%, although bronchial hyperreactivity
remained unchanged.
Although smoking proves to be a difficult habit to break, El-Dahr emphasized
that simply urging parents to get the smoke out of the house is worth the effort
for healthcare providers.
"For the child's health, the immediate goal is to get parents not to smoke
inside the house," she said. "One parent said to us, 'Wow, we can't believe how
much better he is.'"
