This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

New UVA Health Children's asthma research could improve care for children—especially Black children—with severe symptoms that require targeted treatment.

A team of UVA asthma experts found that Black race and ethnicity were the single strongest risk factor for developing harmful inflammation responsible for "T2-high asthma." Children with this type of asthma tend to suffer from frequent asthma attacks and often have difficult-to-manage symptoms.

The new findings could help identify children with the condition and get them tailored treatments sooner. The results also support testing children with severe, difficult-to-treat asthma—regardless of their race—for high levels of T2 inflammation, the UVA experts say.

"For decades we knew that Black children had more adverse outcomes from asthma across the U.S. Most of the research attributed this to environmental and social disparities. We learned instead in a study that was adjusted for air quality, income and urban residence that Black race by far was the most important predictor of type 2 pattern inflammation," said researcher W. Gerald Teague, M.D., a pediatric pulmonologist and asthma expert at UVA Health Children's and the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

"The results support greater awareness of poor symptom control and earlier intervention with therapies known to target type 2 inflammation in all children with asthma, with special attention to children of color."

Black children are much more likely to die of asthma than white children, and they are known to suffer T2 inflammation at higher rates.

Source link