Study examines why children in Regina have higher rate of asthma
Researchers examine link between environment, severity of disease
One out of every five children in Regina has asthma.
Josh Lawson, an associate professor with the Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture and the Department of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan, discovered this surprising statistic two years ago when conducting a survey as part of a long-term study about asthma in the province.
Surveys were sent home with 3,442 children in elementary schools in Regina, Prince Alberta and the rural area surrounding Prince Albert. The results showed children in Regina had a higher rate of asthma at 20.1 per cent, compared to those on farms at 14.5 per cent.
The survey was part of a study that is still being completed. For the last two years, a PhD student has been working on followup research. He has been collecting lung function data, as well as skin prick testing data on 200-300 children from the original survey in order to look more closely at the relationship between the environment and asthma severity and control.
A master’s student has also been running statistical analysis on data collected from the survey. She has been looking at the relationship between environmental, personal and the behavioural characteristics in relation to asthma.
Between that and the PhD student’s work, there will be four journal articles released within the next year explaining the results of the study.
Lawson said that there will also be an article released in the fall on the urban-rural gradient in asthma prevalence.
The study has been done in partnership with centres in Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia and Macedonia.
“We know that there’s geographic variation internationally in asthma prevalence,” Lawson said, explaining that the U of S data will be compared with those at the European centres.
The group is hoping the study will be able to show them a relationship amongst the data in regards to asthma prevalence.
“We want to see if that’s consistent along an urban-rural gradient, and if it’s not, then we can start doing some things to address that or figure out why it’s not consistent,” he said.
The study is wrapping up currently, with results to be released within the next year starting in the fall.