Why Asthma Attacks Is Likely To Triple When Kids Return To School In September – Study

A new study has showed that child asthma cases can triple at the start of the school year. The study was carried out by researchers from Public Health England and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

According to the report, doctors have suspected for years that children are more likely to need medical help for asthma in the weeks after returning to school from the summer holidays.

In this study, the researchers used surveillance data from GPs and hospital emergency departments to track attendances of children with asthma symptoms throughout the year.

They found children aged up to 15 were 2 to 3 times more likely to attend with asthma symptoms in the period after the schools go back in September compared with other times of the year.

Boys were more affected, with twice as many consultations as girls overall.

Possible reasons why children are likely to have more asthma symptoms at the start of the school year include:

more colds, coughs and flu viruses circulating when children return to school, which can trigger asthma symptoms
children with asthma getting out of the habit of using their steroid inhalers during the summer holidays
air pollution, fungal spores or other environmental factors that may be more common in autumn
some children may find returning to school stressful, which could trigger symptoms

If your child has asthma, the best way to protect them is to make sure they take their medicine as prescribed and have regular asthma checks.

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You should also make sure your child’s school is aware of their asthma, including what medicines they use, how much they take and when they need to take them.