Sleep Loss Often Disruptive for City Kids With Asthma

Sleep Loss Often Disruptive for 

City Kids With Asthma

Study linked combination to missed school days, ER visits and less sports participation

SUNDAY, Aug. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Sleep loss is common among children with asthma who live in cities, and it is a major reason for missed school days, emergency room visits and lower levels of involvement in sports, according to new research.

This is especially true for Hispanic children, according to the study, which included the parents of nearly 150 children with asthma treated at the Bradley Hasbro Research Center at Brown Medical School in Providence, R.I.

"Children with asthma from urban backgrounds are at increased risk of disrupted sleep, which can greatly impact their daytime functioning," study lead author Lauren Daniel said in an American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology news release.

"It is important for parents and health care providers to routinely monitor sleep in children with asthma to minimize sleep disruptions and ensure proper asthma control," she added.

Asthma accounts for 10.5 million missed school days each year in the United States, according to the ACAAI.

Children with high levels of anxiety and general worries had trouble getting back to sleep after being awakened during the night by asthma symptoms. The study also found that parents said their quality of life was considerably lower when their child's asthma was not well controlled.

The findings were published in the July issue of the journal Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.

SOURCE: American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, news release, July 11, 2012

Pediatric Asthma, Pulmonary & Sleep Specialist Serves Houston Suburbs with Personal Attention - Dr. Sarat Susarla joins Texas Medical & Sleep Specialists

Houston is the fourth-largest city in the country, but the suburbs continue to face a shortage of full-time pediatric specialists. Texas Medical & Sleep Specialists proudly announces that Dr. Sarat Susarla has stepped into that void to meet the needs both of infants as well as children/teens with asthma and other lung disorders.

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Working closely with families and primary care doctors while providing timely access, we can make a difference.

Houston, TX (PRWEB) July 23, 2012

Imagine driving your distressed child with asthma through 1 to 2 hours of traffic to see her specialist. Until the summer, patients and families had to face an hour or more traffic to access pediatric specialists in the Houston medical center. No more.

Texas Medical & Sleep Specialists is proud to announce that Dr. Sarat Susarla has joined our practice to provide both pediatric pulmonary & asthma care as well as sleep medicine services to the Greater Houston area.

With dual board certification in pediatric pulmonology and sleep medicine, Dr. Susarla cares for young people with a wide spectrum of respiratory disorders. Dr. Susarla welcomes consultation for infants, children, and young adults with asthma, chronic cough, wheezing, pneumonia, exercise intolerance, and respiratory problems related to prematurity.

Dr Susarla brings an expert perspective to asthma care, “I want to work with parents and community physicians to get children with asthma out of the hospital and emergency room. Working closely with families and primary care doctors while providing timely access, we can make a difference.”, said Susarla.

A pediatric pulmonologist specializes in a wide range of common and rare respiratory disorders. Dr. Susarla describes the scope of his work “Asthma is very common, but chronic respiratory problems in kids can have numerous causes. Sometimes children have symptoms very similar to asthma, but it turns out their real diagnosis is actually very different.”

Dr. Susarla offers advanced onsite lung function testing, exercise testing, as well as same-day urgent appointments. Dr. Susarla is the only private pediatric pulmonologist serving The Woodlands, Sugar Land and Memorial / West Houston area. He has staff privileges at a number of local hospitals including Texas Children's Hospital, Children's Memorial Herman Hospital, and The Woman's Hospital of Texas.

Dr. Susarla serves many of Houston's neonatal intensive care units assisting in complex cases and easing the transition to home. One of his special areas of expertise is apnea and in infancy and chronic respiratory disease in former premature infants.

MORE HERE

Exercise intolerance in obese children--is it asthma?

Yes in 47%! 

W V Med J. 2010 Sep-Oct;106(6):12-5.

Ask Dr Susarla, Smith or Patel.....www.txmss.com

Kaslovsky RA, Sondike SB, Cummings S.

Source

Pediatric Pulmonary Division, Baystate Children's Hospital, Springfield, MA, USA.

Abstract

This is a pilot study designed to examine the frequency of asthma in obese children who have exertional dyspnea. Obese children who complained of breathlessness with exercise and who denied asthma were invited to enroll. If there was evidence of airflow limitation on spirometry, nebulized albuterol was administered and spirometry was repeated. If there was no significant improvement or if the baseline spirometry was normal, exercise testing was performed. A total of 20 patients (ages from 8 to 16 years) with BMI from 22 to 61 were enrolled. 

Of the 19 who completed the study, 9 (47.3%) met criteria for asthma.

Recognizing and treating asthma may lead to improved exercisetolerance and improved weight status in these obese individuals.

Excessive Sleepiness May Cause Learning, Attention and School Problems

Children who have learning, attention and behavior problems may be suffering from excessive daytime sleepiness, even though clinical tests show them sleeping long enough at night, a new study reports.

Penn State researchers studied 508 children and found that those whose parents reported excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) -- despite little indication of short sleep from traditional measurements -- were more likely to experience learning, attention/hyperactivity and conduct problems than children without EDS.

The culprits? Obesity, symptoms of inattention, depression and anxiety, asthma and parent-reported trouble falling asleep have been found to contribute to EDS even among children with no signs of diminished sleep time or sleep apnea.

"Impairment due to EDS in cognitive and behavioral functioning can have a serious impact on a child's development," said Susan Calhoun, PhD, the study's lead author. "When children are referred for neurobehavioral problems, they should be assessed for potential risk factors for EDS. Recognizing and treating EDS can offer new strategies to address some of the most common neurobehavioral challenges in young school-age children."

Calhoun said researchers were surprised that most of the children studied showed few signs of short sleep when tested, nor was short sleep associated with any of the learning, attention and behavior problems. She said parents and educators are good resources for determining if a child seems excessively sleepy in the daytime and the complaint should be taken seriously. Previous research found EDS prevalent in 15 percent of children from a general population sample.

Read more here