Teen Asthma: The Role Of Leisure Activities

Main Category: Respiratory / Asthma
Article Date: 28 Sep 2007 - 6:00 PDT

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A German study on some 3,000 teenagers shows that the risk of developing wheezing is greater among those who regularly go to discotheques than among sports or computing enthusiasts.

Smoking is still, however, the main behavioural factor contributing to asthma, concludes the study, to be published in the European Respiratory Journal (ERJ), the official publication of the European Respiratory Society (ERS).

When teenagers develop asthma, should we check their diaries to look for a link with their leisure activities? So suggests a German study conducted by a team working under Christian Vogelberg (University Children's Hospital Dresden, Germany), which shows that teenagers who wheeze tend to be those who regularly visit discotheques. Physical activity, however, appears to protect against the onset of asthma, as does an hour or more on the computer each day. Yet these results can partially be explained through differences in smoking habits, the authors emphasise.

List of 121 lifestyle questions

Asthma is known to have become more widespread in recent decades amongst both adults and children. Various hypotheses have been put forward to explain this trend: genetic factors, environmental influences, or the impact of the western lifestyle. Several studies have identified an inverse correlation between asthma rates and levels of physical activity, which suggests that sport has a protective effect against bronchial hyperreactivity.

In order to explore this further, Vogelberg and his team analysed the influence of different types of leisure activity on the onset of wheezing in teenagers. They started by contacting children who had previously participated in a study on respiratory conditions: the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC), which included almost 6,400 children, then aged 9-11 years. For the new study, the German team recruited 2,910 of those subjects, now aged 16-18 years. None of them had previously suffered from wheezing.

All of the volunteers completed a 121-item questionnaire, which focused mainly on lifestyle, environment and leisure activities, and which also asked about any onset of asthmatic symptoms in the past twelve months. In total, 330 participants reported having suffered at least one episode of wheezing in the past year.

Sport brings benefits and discotheques bring adverse effects

"Going to discotheques is a clear risk factor for asthma", Vogelberg emphasises in the ERJ article. "The proportion of teenagers who have recently suffered wheezing is 12.9% for youngesters who go to discotheques and only 9.9% for youngsters who never go to these places - a statistically significant difference".

Equally, the asthma level is higher among young people who practise sport less than once a week and those who spend less than an hour a day at their computers. However, time spent watching television does not seem to have any influence on the onset of bronchial hyperreactivity symptoms.

A family history of asthma does not appear to be a risk factor either, the study finds. But, regardless of leisure choices, smoking habits are the strongest factor. The group of new asthmatics includes 19.2% smokers, while they represent only 7.5% of the other group. Passive smoking appears to play a weaker role, although frequenting certain discotheques could have an impact.

"This link with smoking is emphasised by the fact that the connection between physical activity and asthma disappears when active smoking is factored in", Vogelberg explains. "However, our study's methodology did not allow us to determine whether a teenager was a non-smoker because he liked sport or whether he was inactive because he smoked or was subjected to passive smoking."

The researchers are not surprised at the findings, however. "For children and teenagers, smoking, whether active or passive, is a well-recognised risk factor for asthma", they comment, emphasising its confounding role.

Therefore, any research into the influence of leisure activities on asthma needs to include an analysis of this parameter, they conclude.

The European Respiratory Journal is the peer-reviewed scientific publication of the European Respiratory Society (more than 8,000 specialists in lung diseases and respiratory medicine in Europe, the United States and Australia).

European Respiratory Society