Tenn. study finds asthma rising among rural kids

A new study has found that asthma is an increasing problem among rural children, at least in Tennessee. "We know that asthma is a problem among poor urban children in the U.S., but it turns out it is also a problem among poor rural children, " lead researcher Dr. Robert S. Valet of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville told Amy Norton of Reuters. He said higher asthma rates may be related to higher rates of maternal smoking and bronchiolitis in infancy. "Among rural children, 35 percent had a mother who smoked during pregnancy, compared with 16 percent of urban children. And 22 percent of rural children had bronchiolitis as infants, versus 17 percent of urban kids," Norton writes.

Researchers reviewed records of 117,080 Tennessee children covered under Medicaid and found "11 percent of urban, 12 percent of suburban and 13 percent of rural children had an asthma diagnosis between the ages of 4 and 5½. When it came to inhaled corticosteroids, 31 percent of rural children had a prescription, as did 32 percent of suburban and 35 percent of urban children.The lower rates of inhaled corticosteroids may be related in part to the lack of asthma specialists in rural areas, Norton reports. The researchers propose "offering more asthma education in rural primary care clinics – in the form of written materials or trained 'asthma educators'" as the solution. (Read more)