More Kids Suffering With Asthma in Bay State
Posted on: Wednesday, 24 August 2005, 21:00 CDT
A state study has found that the number of Bay State children with asthma continues to climb, and health officials hope the new data will help them determine what's causing the increase in cases.
School nurses in 1,664 public and private schools provided the number of students with asthma, kindergarten through eighth grade, during the 2003-2004 school year. Officials said 9.5 percent of the 638,421 students - or about 76,000 kids - had asthma.
Boston Middle School Academy had the highest rate, with 39.1 percent of its students having asthma.
Towns with the highest pediatric asthma rates were Pelham, Erving, Clarksburg, Holyoke and Athol/Royalston. The towns with the lowest were Leverett, Wellfleet, Edgartown, North Brookfield and Harwich.
During the previous year, 311,000 students were surveyed and 9.2 percent of them - or 28,670 children - had asthma.
Officials are now collecting data from the last school year as part of a three-year project.
Pediatric asthma is on the rise nationwide. Massachusetts has one of the highest rates and is one of the few states doing statewide surveillance.
Suzanne Condon of the state Department of Public Health said the report will "lay a foundation for a better understanding of why these numbers are rising." Indoor or outdoor air pollution could be the culprit, and Condon said there are "industrial sources" in Erving and Pelham, the towns with the highest rates.
The date shows that pediatric asthma affects kids in both poor and wealthier communities, officials said. According to another report, school nurses administered 17,130 prescriptions for asthma medications to 540,000 students in 2003-2004.
Caption: FRESH AIR: Shi-yana James, 9, and Aaron Swan, 8, play at the Mildred Avenue Community Center yesterday as part of the Boston Asthma Summer Program. STAFF PHOTO BY ANGELA ROWLINGS
Source: Boston Herald
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