Daycare attendance and asthma control, Asthma Call-back Survey 2012–2014

Abstract

Objective

To examine the association between daycare attendance and asthma control among children aged 0 to 4 years with asthma

Methods

We analyzed 2012–2014 data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Asthma Call-back Survey on 388 children with asthma aged 0 to 4 years with information on daycare attendance in the past 12 months. We calculated weighted prevalence ratios to assess the association between daycare attendance and asthma control (categorized based on day-time and nighttime asthma symptoms, activity limitation, and short-acting beta agonist use). Adjusted models controlled for parent or guardian education, household income, race, sex, cost barriers to asthma care, long-term control medication use, and the number of other children in the child’s household.

Results

In this sample of children with asthma, representative of 520,400 children in 26 U.S. states, 34% attended daycare in the past 12 months. Only 32% of children who attended daycare in the past 12 months reported having an asthma action plan on file at the daycare they most recently attended. Presence of the asthma triggers of pets, mold, and smoking in a child’s daycare were reported to be uncommon. Prevalence of uncontrolled asthma was 44% in children who attended daycare in the past 12 months and 68% in children who did not. The adjusted prevalence ratio between daycare attendance and uncontrolled asthma was 0.96 (95% confidence interval 0.73, 1.25).

Conclusions

When adjusting for covariates, we observed no evidence of an association between daycare attendance in early life and uncontrolled asthma.

Keywords:

• Control/Management
• Epidemiology
• Pediatrics

Acknowledgements

The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).