Factors influencing the risk of child asthma, and it's early management strategies

Abstract

Factors that influence the risk of asthma can be divided into those that cause the development of asthma and those that trigger asthma symptoms; some do both. The former include host factors and the latter are usually environmental factors. However, the mechanisms whereby they influence the development and expression of asthma are complex and interactive. Early management strategies for asthma can be categorized as follows: “Primary prevention”, “Secondary prevention” and “Early intervention”. Pregnant women and parents of young children should be advised not to smoke as “Primary prevention”. As for “Secondary prevention”, H1- antagonists (antihistamines) interventions cannot be recommended for wide adoption in clinical practice at this time. “Early intervention” can be applied soon after clinical asthma has occurred, with the goals of reducing asthma symptoms and exacerbations safely. Recent studies have shown that the natural course of asthma in young children at high risk for subsequent asthma is not modified with inhaled corticosteroids. Therefore, inhaled corticosteroids cannot be recommended to be used to prevent asthma in high-risk preschool children. The major changes that have been made in Japanese Pediatric Guideline JPGL2008 should be mentioned in this report.