Taking care of your child’s wellness can be difficult when he or she has asthma, and according to a new study, the financial strain of health care in the USA could potentially prevent the condition from being treated or even diagnosed in the first place.
The study, which was published in the journal Health Services Research, has shown that if health insurance was provided to more children, more cases of mild or intermittent asthma could be diagnosed. Many medical health professionals who treat childhood asthma say that taking this measure may ensure the wellbeing of numerous children, as this could increase the number of kids receiving medication to control their asthma symptoms and seeking care for asthma flares.
According to lead author Tumaini Coker, MD, assistant professor at the University of California at Los Angeles’ Mattel Children’s Hospital, ‘Health insurance may lead to diagnosis for children with milder symptoms of asthma, who otherwise may not be diagnosed because they don’t present to emergency departments and doctor offices for asthma flares as often as children with more severe symptoms.’
Coker explained that insured children with intermittent asthma are four times more likely to have an asthma diagnosis to receive a prescription for inhaled medication, and they were also more likely to make visits to the emergency room or doctor’s office than children without insurance, even though they take medication. The team of researchers surmised that this may be because parents are more sensitive to asthma symptoms after their child has been diagnosed with the condition.
Coker said that before scientists will be able to understand the widespread benefit to humans, they ‘need other studies that look at the long-term benefits and costs of detecting and treating previously undiagnosed children who have intermittent asthma.’
Michael Cabana, MD, professor of paediatrics at the University of California at San Francisco, adds that finding more cases of persistent and intermittent asthma will improve kids’ quality of life, despite the costs. He urged that, ‘if we insure more kids, we may uncover this unmet need of folks that haven’t been diagnosed with asthma or who aren’t achieving optimal care.’
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