The avoidance of asthma triggers, like tobacco smoke, facilitates asthma management. Reliance upon caregiver report of their child’s environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure may result in information bias and impaired asthma management. This analysis aimed to characterize the chronicity of ETS exposure, assess the validity of caregiver report of ETS exposure, and investigate the relationship between ETS exposure and asthma attack.

A secondary data analysis was performed on data from a longitudinal study of 162 children aged 7–12 years with asthma living in federally subsidized housing in three US cities (Boston, Cincinnati, and New Orleans). Data were collected at three time points over 1 year.

Over 90% of children were exposed to ETS (≥0.25 ng/ml of urine cotinine (UC)). Exposure was consistent over 1 year. Questionnaire data had a sensitivity of 28–34% using UC ≥0.25 ng/ml as the gold standard. High ETS exposure (UC ≥ 30 ng/ml) was significantly associated with asthma attack (aOR 2.97, 0.93–9.52, p = 0.07). Lower levels (UC 0.25–30 ng/ml) were not statistically significant (aOR 1.76, 0.71– 4.38, p = 0.22). No association was found using caregiver-reported ETS exposure.

Relying on questionnaire data to assess children’s exposure to tobacco smoke may lead to substantial information bias. For children with asthma, incorrect characterization may substantially impact asthma morbidity.

This article reports on the development of patient resources for the IMPlementing IMProved Asthma self-management as RouTine (IMP2ART) programme that aimed to encourage patients to attend asthma reviews (invitation letters), encourage patients to enquire about asthma action plans (posters), and equip patients with the knowledge to manage their asthma (information website).

To improve supported asthma self-management in UK primary care, the IMP2ART programme developed a whole-systems approach (patient resources, professional education, and organisational strategies).

Linked to behaviour change theory, we developed a range of patient resources for primary care general practices (an information website, invitation letters to invite patients for asthma reviews, and posters to encourage asthma action plan ownership). We elicited qualitative feedback on the resources from people living with asthma in the UK (n = 17). In addition, we conducted an online survey with volunteers in the UK-wide REgister for Asthma researCH (REACH) database to identify where they source asthma information, whether their information needs are met, and what information would be useful (n = 95).

Following feedback gathered from the interviews and the online survey, we refined our patient resources for the IMP2ART programme. Refinements included highlighting the seriousness of asthma, enhancing trustworthiness, and including social support resources. We also made necessary colour and formatting changes to the resources. In addition, the patient resources were updated following the COVID-19 pandemic. The multi-stage development process enabled us to refine and optimise the patient resources. The IMP2ART strategy is now being tested in a UK-wide cluster RCT (ref: ISRCTN15448074).

Non-clinical aspects of life, such as social, environmental, behavioral, psychological, and economic factors, what we call the sociome, play significant roles in shaping patient health and health outcomes. This paper introduces the Sociome Data Commons (SDC), a new research platform that enables large-scale data analysis for investigating such factors.

This platform focuses on “hyper-local” data, i.e., at the neighborhood or point level, a geospatial scale of data not adequately considered in existing tools and projects. We enumerate key insights gained regarding data quality standards, data governance, and organizational structure for long-term project sustainability. A pilot use case investigating sociome factors associated with asthma exacerbations in children residing on the South Side of Chicago used machine learning and six SDC datasets.

The pilot use case reveals one dominant spatial cluster for asthma exacerbations and important roles of housing conditions and cost, proximity to Superfund pollution sites, urban flooding, violent crime, lack of insurance, and a poverty index.

The SDC has been purposefully designed to support and encourage extension of the platform into new data sets as well as the continued development, refinement, and adoption of standards for dataset quality, dataset inclusion, metadata annotation, and data access/governance. The asthma pilot has served as the first driver use case and demonstrates promise for future investigation into the sociome and clinical outcomes. Additional projects will be selected, in part for their ability to exercise and grow the capacity of the SDC to meet its ambitious goals.

The aim of this study was to look at a cohort of adolescents who were already enrolled in a randomized controlled trial to see (1) how demographics were associated with hurricane impact, and (2) how hurricane impact was associated with reported asthma quality of life.

One hundred fifty-one adolescents ages 11-17 and their parents enrolled in a randomized controlled trial at 2 sites in southeastern North Carolina completed questions about asthma quality of life, demographics, and the impact of Hurricane Matthew.

The most common effects of Hurricane Matthew were that the family’s home was damaged or flooded (32.5%), the school was damaged or flooded (31.8%), and the home had mold or mildew as a result of flooding or damage (25.8%). Problems with access to care were more common for families whose adolescent was non-White (P = 0.04), on Medicaid (P = 0.05), or if the family spoke Spanish at home (P < 0.001). Being affected by the hurricane was negatively associated with asthma quality of life.

Hurricane Matthew had significant impact on the health of adolescents with asthma in the affected region, especially in the most vulnerable populations. Providers should ensure that families of adolescents with asthma have a hurricane plan to mitigate impact on their children’s health.

The cases of chest pain in children are usually not of cardiac origin.

To investigate asthma and other atopic diseases in children with chest pain not of cardiac origin.

Children aged 6–18 years who were seen for chest pain were included in the study. Haematologic parameters, pulmonary function tests, and skin prick tests were performed. Atopic diseases and environmental factors were investigated.

The non-cardiac chest pain group (Group 1) included 88 children (female: 53.4%) with a mean age of 11.9 ± 3.4 years; the control group (Group 2) included 29 children (female: 53.8%) with a mean age of 11.4±2 years (p > 0.05). A family history of atopy (22.7%) and skin prick test positivity (28.4%) was more common in Group 1 than Group 2 (p = 0.006 and p = 0.017, respectively). The rate of presence of all environmental factors except stove use and mould was significantly higher in Group 1 (54.5%) than Group 2 (3.4%) (p < 0.001). Asthma was diagnosed in 44.3% and allergic rhinitis in 9.1% of patients in Group 1. Idiopathic chest pain, musculoskeletal system disorders, gastroesophageal reflux, and pneumonia were identified in 23.9%, 11.4%, 8%, and 3.4% of patients in Group 1, respectively.

In this study, the most common cause of non-cardiac chest pain was asthma. The local prevalence of asthma is higher than normal, and this may have affected the results of this study. A detailed history and physical examination will accurately establish the cause of chest pain in most children.

Some chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps patients undergo revision surgery at some point following initial functional endoscopic sinus surgery. This review aimed to identify the predictive factors for recurrence of nasal polyps requiring oral corticosteroids or revision surgery in chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps following functional endoscopic sinus surgery.

A retrospective analysis of 221 patients who underwent functional endoscopic sinus surgery for chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps in a tertiary rhinology centre, between January 2015 and December 2018, was undertaken.

Forty-four (21.6 per cent) patients underwent medical polypectomy, 19 (9 per cent) underwent revision surgery and 51 (24.3 per cent) underwent combined polypectomy during the mean follow-up time of 5.3 years. Patients aged less than 55 years of age, with a history of previous functional endoscopic sinus surgery, peripheral blood eosinophil counts of 300 cells/μl or higher, a Lund–Mackay score of more than 17 and concomitant aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease had significantly increased odds for medical polypectomy, revision surgery and combined polypectomy.

Knowing these predictive factors, clinicians can better identify patients with an increased likelihood of severe polyp recurrence and therefore arrange closer follow-up to optimise therapy.

Asthma is the most common non-communicable chronic airway disease worldwide. Obesity and cigarette use independently increase asthma morbidity and mortality. Current literature suggests that obesity and smoking synergistically increase asthma-related wheezing.

To assess whether increased serum cotinine and obesity act synergistically to increase the likelihood of having an asthma exacerbation, emergency department (ED) visit, or hospitalization.

A cross-sectional analysis of the 2011–2015 iterations of NHANES database was performed. Patients aged 18 years or greater with asthma were included. Serum cotinine was utilized as an accurate measurement of cigarette use. Logistic regression models were constructed to determine whether elevated serum cotinine and obesity were associated with self-reported asthma exacerbations, asthma-specific ED usage, and hospitalizations for any reason in the past year. Odds ratios were adjusted for age, gender, race, and ethnicity. Interactions were assessed by multiplying the adjusted effect sizes for elevated cotinine and obesity.

We identified 2179 (N = 32,839,290) patients with asthma, of which 32.2% were active smokers and 42.7% were obese. Patients with an elevated cotinine and asthma were significantly more likely to have had an asthma-related ED visit in the past year (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 1.82; 95% CI 1.19–2.79), have a physician-prescribed asthma medication (AOR 2.04; 95% CI 1.11–3.74), and have a hospitalization for any reason (AOR 3.65; 95% CI 1.88–7.07) compared to those with low cotinine. Patients with asthma and obesity were more likely to have an asthma-related ED visit (AOR 1.67; 95% CI 1.06–2.62) or hospitalization for any reason in the past year compared to non-obese patients (AOR 2.76; 95% CI 1.69–4.5). However, a statistically significant interaction between obesity and cotinine was only identified in patients who currently have asthma compared to a previous asthma diagnosis (AOR 1.76; 95% CI 1.10–2.82). There were no synergistic interactions among ED usage or asthma exacerbations.

Nearly one-third of patients with asthma were current smokers, and almost half were obese. This study identified elevated serum cotinine, a metabolite of cigarette use, and obesity as key risk factors for asthma exacerbations, asthma-related ED visits, and hospitalizations for any reason. Elevated serum cotinine and obesity were not found to act synergistically in increasing asthma exacerbations or ED visits. However, the presence of both risk factors increased the risk of currently having asthma (compared to a previous diagnosis) by 76%. Serum cotinine may be useful in predicting asthma outcomes.

This study aimed to discuss the role of large cavity functional endoscopic sinus surgery in the management of chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps in patients with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug exacerbated respiratory disease.

This was a retrospective review of patients undergoing large cavity functional endoscopic sinus surgery for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug exacerbated respiratory disease from January 2016 to March 2022. Population characteristics, pre- and post-operative number of functional endoscopic sinus surgical procedures, endoscopic polyp grade, Lund–Mackay score and nasal symptoms were recorded.

Thirteen consecutive patients with a median age of 47 years were included. They all failed maximal medical treatment and/or conservative functional endoscopic sinus surgery and underwent large cavity sinus surgery followed by post-operative maximal medical therapy. All patients showed an improvement in nasal symptoms with improved Lund–Mackay scores post-operatively. The median length of follow up was 1.5 years.

Large cavity functional endoscopic sinus surgery seems to halt the progression of chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps in non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug exacerbated respiratory disease. In this case series, large cavity functional endoscopic sinus surgery combined with optimal post-operative medical treatment appeared to switch off chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps in patients with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug exacerbated respiratory disease.

Chronic or recurrent mucoid respiratory tract symptoms may be difficult to diagnose.

Ninety-two children with chronic respiratory symptoms were divided into 4 groups: 18 children with refractory asthma, 10 with bronchiectasis without dextrocardia, 18 with dextrocardia and 46 with recurrent respiratory tract infections. Except for five neonates, cytology samples were taken under general anaesthesia. Ciliary beat frequency was measured photometrically and analysed by in-house computer software.

Nasal polyps were found in one child with normal ciliary beat frequency. Twenty-six children had no beating cilia (male to female ratio, 15:11). The effect of increasing temperature on the ciliary beat frequency of the remaining 66 patients was evaluated (42 patients, more than 30°C, median, 8.3 Hz; 24 patients, 30–37°C, median, 11.8 Hz; p = 0.0003).

The measurement of ciliary beat frequency is part of the diagnostic work up of patients with persistent or recurrent respiratory tract infections.

There is some evidence that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) frequently co-occurs with immune-mediated conditions including asthma. We aimed to explore the familial co-aggregation of ASD and asthma using different genetically informed designs.

We first examined familial co-aggregation of asthma and ASD in individuals born in Sweden from 1992 to 2007 (n = 1 569 944), including their full- and half-siblings (n = 1 704 388 and 356 544 pairs) and full cousins (n = 3 921 890 pairs), identified using Swedish register data. We then applied quantitative genetic modeling to siblings (n = 620 994 pairs) and twins who participated in the Child and Adolescent Twin Study in Sweden (n = 15 963 pairs) to estimate the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to the co-aggregation. Finally, we estimated genetic correlations between traits using linkage disequilibrium score regression (LDSC).

We observed a within-individual association [adjusted odds ratio (OR) 1.33, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.28–1.37] and familial co-aggregation between asthma and ASD, and the magnitude of the associations decreased as the degree of relatedness decreased (full-siblings: OR 1.44, 95% CI 1.38–1.50, maternal half-siblings: OR 1.28, 95% CI 1.18–1.39, paternal half-siblings: OR 1.05, 95% CI 0.96–1.15, full cousins: OR 1.06, 95% CI 1.03–1.09), suggesting shared familial liability. Quantitative genetic models estimated statistically significant genetic correlations between ASD traits and asthma. Using the LDSC approach, we did not find statistically significant genetic correlations between asthma and ASD (coefficients between −0.09 and 0.12).

Using different genetically informed designs, we found some evidence of familial co-aggregation between asthma and ASD, suggesting the weak association between these disorders was influenced by shared genetics.