A “real-life” study on height in prepubertal asthmatic children receiving inhaled steroids

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Asthma is the most common chronic respiratory disease in children and inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) constitute the first line of treatment for these patients. However, the potential growth-inhibiting effect of ICS has often been a cause of concern for both caregivers as well as physicians, and there still remains conflict regarding their safety profile. Objective: To assess whether the administration of ICS in low or medium doses is associated with height reduction in prepubertal children. Methods: We performed a retrospective study to examine the association between ICS treatment and growth deceleration in children with mild persistent asthma. The comparison of height measurements every 6 months from 3 to 8 years of age was conducted among three groups of patients: patients not receiving ICS, patients being treated with low dose of ICS and patients being treated with medium dose of ICS (GINA Guidelines 2015). Results: This study included 284 patients (198 male, 86 female) aged 3–8 years; 75 patients were not receiving ICS, 63 patients were on low-dose ICS and 146 patients were on medium-dose ICS. The measured height every 6 months did not differ significantly (p > 0.05) among the three groups while the difference remained stable (p > 0.05), even when we evaluated males and females separately. Conclusions: In this “real-life” study we found that long-term treatment with ICS in low or medium doses is not associated with height reduction in prepubertal children with asthma.

KEYWORDS:

• Asthma
• children
• growth
• height
• steroids

Abbreviations

ICS	=	Inhaled Corticosteroids
RCT	=	Randomized Control Trial

Contributors

EH, and JT had full access to all of the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. EH, VA, MP, FK and JT contributed substantially to the study design, data analysis and interpretation. DP performed the statistical analysis. EK, DP, DT and MK collected all retrospective data of the study. All the authors contributed to the writing of the manuscript. EH, DP and JT reviewed and edited the manuscript. EH and JT are guarantors.

Conflicts of interest

All authors would like to confirm that there is nothing to declare.

Ethics approval

The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Hippokration Hospital.