Essay On Asthma

Words: 1368
Pages: 6

Research efforts are underway to fully understand the different mechanisms triggering asthma. The disease is categorized as an inflammatory chronic lung disease of the airways that creates an obstruction of air and symptoms include shortness of breath, wheezing, chest tightness, and cough. It is a problematic condition due to the narrowing of the airways that can make it hard to take in air and breathe (Noutsios, & Floros, 2014). Asthma can be diagnosed at any age, but occurrence in children has become more frequent. The number of preschool children diagnosed with asthma doubled from 1980 to 1990 (Jackson, Hartet, Martinez, Weiss, & Fahy, 2014). The reason for concern is that the disease is responsible for many child hospitalizations and deaths due to the severe airway obstruction. Children may not experience symptoms as much or may even go into remission of the chronic disease as they get older, nonetheless there is a risk of reoccurrence as adults. The causatives of asthma can be either environmental factors, genetic predispositions, or both (Noutsios, & Floros, 2014).
Allergic triggers that cause asthma include dust mites, secondhand smoke, respiratory viruses, certain chemicals, pet dander, pollen, bacterial toxins, and air
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Within the last years, children often spend most of their time in the indoor environment. Hence here the interest of study, since the indoor environment contains allergens and pre-school children usually use their mouths as a way to discover new things and expose the outside environment to their respiratory tract. Aeroallergens are highly associated as causative agents of asthma due to the sensitization of children at a young age. These children who have persistent asthma may also have a poor lung function (Gaffin, Kanchongkittiphon, & Phipatanakul,