Asthma Management Can Be Difficult

Statistics show that roughly 26 million Americans suffer from asthma-a respiratory illness that causes the air flow of the lungs to narrow, resulting in shortness of breath, wheezing and coughing. Properly managing this chronic illness is key to get along with every day life. Yet recent findings presented at ACAAI Annual Scientific Meeting show that many are unaware how to properly work with their symptoms.

"We went into the study thinking that parents or caregivers would be an important source of information for teens with asthma, and that their health literacy scores would more or less align," said allergist and the study's lead author, Jeana Bush, MD, who is a member of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI). "What we found was that there was significant disagreement between the two groups, and, that in certain groups, teens had better health literacy, which may mean they are more knowledgeable about controlling asthma than their parents."

For the study, researchers discovered a disagreement between the two groups. However they did not examine the factors that were responsible for it.

Yet another study analyzed the content of the most popularly viewed asthma videos on YouTube. Two-hundred of the videos showed that these alone were not the best sources to educate viewers. Instead, officials recommended websites specifically created by asthma organizations and health-care providers.

"The most commonly viewed video content was on alternative treatments," said Gonzalez-Estrada according to the press release. "Some of the treatments that came up were live-fish ingestion, reflexology, raw food/vegan/gluten-free diets, marijuana and salt therapy, none of which are scientifically proven. Videos by asthma health-care providers were rated the highest in quality, but unfortunately, they were not the most viewed."