False. Since air quality is not associated with childhood asthma in the first place.
There are many problems with this study, from study design (ecological study) to self-reported data to weak statistical associations to missing data. But the real killer, here, is that none of the claimed associations between air pollutants and asthma in children have been or can be replicated in a controlled clinical setting.
The media release is below.
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Decrease in air pollution associated with decrease in respiratory symptoms among children
THE JAMA NETWORK JOURNALS
Decreases in ambient air pollution levels over the past 20 years in Southern California were associated with significant reductions in bronchitic symptoms in children with and without asthma, according to a study appearing in the April 12 issue of JAMA.
Childhood bronchitic symptoms are significant public and clinical health problems that produce a substantial burden of disease. Ambient air pollutants are important determinants of bronchitis occurrence. Since 1992, significant improvements in air quality have been observed across Southern California due to a broad range of air pollution reduction policies and strategies. Kiros Berhane, Ph.D., of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and colleagues examined whether improvements in ambient air quality in Southern California were associated with reductions in bronchitic symptoms in children. The study involved children (age range, 5-18 years) from 3 groups, and was conducted during the 1993-2001, 1996-2004, and 2003-2012 years in 8 Southern California communities.
A model was used to estimate the association of changes in pollution levels with bronchitic symptoms. The primary measured outcome among children was annual age-specific prevalence of bronchitic symptoms during the previous 12 months based on the parent’s or child’s report of a daily cough for 3 months in a row, congestion or phlegm other than when accompanied by a cold, or bronchitis.
The 3 cohorts included a total of 4,602 children (average age at baseline, 8 years; 49 percent girls; 45 percent Hispanic white) who had data from 2 or more annual questionnaires. Among these children, 19 percent had asthma at age 10 years. The authors found that decreases in ambient concentrations of nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than 10 µm (PM10) and less than 2.5 µm (PM2.5) were associated with significant decreases in bronchitic symptoms in children with and without asthma. The reductions were proportionally larger in children with asthma and remained similar when examined at 10, 13, and 15 years of age during the follow-up period. Among patients with asthma, the reductions in bronchitic symptoms tended to be larger in boys and among children from households with dogs.
“While the study design does not establish causality, the findings support potential benefit of air pollution reduction on asthma control,” the authors write.
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“While the study design does not establish causality, the findings support potential benefit of air pollution reduction on asthma control,” the authors write. What a pile of BS, you know as a lifelong asthma suffer where I live has little to do with my asthma. Dust is not a trigger, pollen yes, cold yes, exercise yes, dust no.
This is a crock, the only way this can be happening is if the decrease is greater than the global decrease in man caused pollutants, and the number of respiratory disease is lowered at the same rate as the decrease in man caused pollutants.