Asthma :: Children in Shelters suffers from Asthma

A health study of homeless children shows that about half of those entering the New York City shelter system have asthma, a finding that underscores the increased health risk to the most vulnerable population and the challenges faced by those who serve them. This may be true for children in slum dwellers in all major cities worldwide.

Asthma is on the rise nationally, and experts have long known that children in poor, urban areas are most likely to suffer from it, largely because of lung irritants like cockroach feces, secondhand smoke, diesel soot, mold and dust.

An even higher rate among homeless children may not be surprising at first glance.

But the report, published in the March issue of The Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, offers an unusual glimpse of the added health risks to people living chaotic lives and trying to control a disease that requires constant monitoring and medication.

The report finds that 90 percent of the homeless children with severe, persistent asthma were not taking the anti-inflammatory medicine needed to control it. Even among those whose families knew they had asthma because it had previously been diagnosed, 80 percent of those with severe, persistent asthma were not on medication. And almost half of all the cases had not been diagnosed before the study.


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