The researchers led by
Dr Clare Murray, clinical senior lecturer at The University of Manchester and
consultant respiratory paediatrician at the Royal Manchester Children's
Hospital, Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said mite
allergy is one of the most common asthma triggers, and in partnership with
viral infection could greatly increase hospital admission risk.
Dr Murray said, children
were enrolled aged 3-17 years who had tested positive for mite allergy, and
suffered an asthma flare-up or exacerbation that required being treated in
accident and emergency or as a hospital inpatient.
She explained that after
encasing their mattresses, duvets and pillows with mite-proof covers or placebo
covers, the children were followed for a year, stressing that “Neither the
children, the investigators nor their health care professionals knew which set
of covers the children received.”
The findings, NaijaAgroNet reports, demonstrated that children sleeping with the mite-proof covers
compared to the placebo arm of the trial, just as they were less likely to have
a severe asthma exacerbation that resulted in an accident and emergency visit
or hospital admission (29.3 percent vs. 41.5 percent).
In addition, the study
showed that incidence had a 45 per cent
reduced risk of having an asthma exacerbation that resulted in an accident and
emergency visit or hospitalisation and the requirement for systemic
corticosteroids.
Equally, the result
showed a significantly longer
time to their first exacerbation that resulted in an accident and emergency
visit or hospitalisation and the requirement for systemic corticosteroids.
“Asthma exacerbations
are among the most common reasons for hospitalizing children living in the
developed world,” said Dr Murray. “It’s a frightening experience for children
and their parents, and a single exacerbation can increase the annual cost of
treating asthma by three-fold.”
Dr. Murray added that
viral infections, especially those causing the common cold, are a major risk
factor for asthma exacerbations in children sensitised and exposed to
allergens. “Other studies have shown that these two risk factors act
synergistically to increase the likelihood of hospital admission by nearly
20-fold,” Dr Murray said. “We have no means of protecting people from cold
viruses, but our study indicates that allergen avoidance may be a
cost-effective intervention.”
The authors estimated
the cost of the bedcovers would be about £130 for a single bed. “This
simple measure may reduce asthmatic exacerbations that lead to accident and
emergency visits or hospitalisation, particularly in younger children who are
allergic only to dust mites,” Dr Murray said.
The mite-proof covers
did not significantly reduce the number of children whose exacerbation was
treated outside the hospital with only an oral corticosteroid. The authors said
it was not clear why this was the case. “It may be that the bedcovers did not
prevent the exacerbation, but did reduce its severity,” Dr Murray explained.
Limitations of the
study, which is believed to be the first to study the effect of mite-proof
bedcovers and asthma exacerbations, include the fact that the exacerbations and
oral corticosteroid use were reported by parents or guardians, not physicians,
and the researchers had no information about viruses or other exacerbation
triggers.
Although the study was
not large enough to conclusively define the subgroups that benefitted the most
from the intervention, the authors wrote that their results suggested that
younger children testing positive for only house dust mite allergy and living
in non-smoking households were more likely to benefit from the mite impermeable
bed covers.
The study was funded
by The JP Moulton Charitable Foundation. Infrastructure support was provided by
the North West Lung Centre Charity.
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