Scientific Review Finds Asthma Drugs Suppress Child Growth
Corticosteroid drugs given via inhalers to children with asthma may suppress their growth, according to two systematic reviews of scientific studies on the issue.
Health experts who conducted the review and published it in The Cochrane Library journal found that children’s growth slowed in the first year of treatment, although the effects were minimized by using lower doses.
Steroid-containing inhalers are prescribed as first-line treatments for adults and children with persistent asthma.
They are the most effective asthma control drugs and have been shown to reduce asthma deaths, hospital visits and improve quality of life by cutting the number and severity of attacks.
Yet their potential effect on children’s growth is a source of worry for parents and doctors – a factor which prompted the Cochrane reviewers to analyze the evidence more closely.
“The evidence… suggests that children treated daily with inhaled corticosteroids may grow approximately half a centimeter less during the first year of treatment,” said Linjie Zhang at the Federal University of Rio Grande in Brazil, who led the review. “But this effect is less pronounced in subsequent years, is not cumulative, and seems minor compared to the known benefits of the drugs for controlling asthma.”
According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), some 235 million people worldwide suffer from asthma, a chronic disease which inflames and narrows the air passages of the lungs. The disease is common among children.
“These studies confirm what many have suspected, that inhaled steroids can suppress growth in children,” said Jon Ayres, a professor of environmental and respiratory medicine at Britain’s Birmingham University.
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