In the event that a child is constantly having recurrent coughs, shortness of breath, wheezing sound during breathing and chest tightness, chances are that they have been affected by childhood asthma. Such children usually have less enthusiasm compared to other children and may avoid involving themselves in physical activities. The air passages and lungs when exposed to particular triggers like animal fur, pollen, dust and cold usually get inflamed thereby making it a challenge for air to pass through. The commonest symptoms of childhood asthma include shortness of breath, intermittent coughing, chest pains, and chest congestions. (Mayo Clinic, 2016) Additionally, such children may present cases of troubled breathing when involving in physical exercises, having trouble during sleeping, delayed healing after a bronchitis bout and fatigue due to lack of sleep. The risk factors for this condition in children include; a family history of allergies and asthma, being exposed to tobacco smoke, obesity, residing in urban areas with increased pollution, respiratory conditions like arthritis and allergic conditions for instance hay fever. Diagnosing this disease in children is kind of a challenge since their respiratory systems are not well developed as yet. However, the children above 5 years of age can be easily diagnosed like adults by a spirometry test. Children under five years can be diagnosed by observing the symptoms of the disease. The treatment regimen for this condition involves long-term control mechanisms and quick relief mechanisms. Long-term management of the disease is the cornerstone of effectively managing the disease (Mayo Clinic, 2016). The medication used in this situation includes; inhaled corticosteroids, combination inhalers and leukotriene modifiers. The quick-relief medications are used for opening up the airwaves quickly when a person is under a shortness of breath attack. Examples include; Immunomodulatory agents and Ipratropium.
Study question
Are lifestyle modifications effective in managing childhood asthma?
The most appropriate epidemiological study design for addressing this problem is descriptive epidemiology. This study design provides a way of summarizing a particular disease by focusing on the person that has been affected by the disease the place of infection and the time that will be used to analyze the condition (Håkansson et al., 2014). This study design makes it easy to have a good understanding of the disease, the geographical distribution, and the variations of the disease based on the characteristics of the affected individual. As such, by employing this study design, it becomes easy to identify the trends that this disease has thereby making it easy for public health programs to provide resources to manage it.
The cohort epidemiological design cannot be used in this study mainly because; its course is focused on refuting any associations between the cause and the outcome of a particular disease. As such, this type of study design is biased towards addressing the null hypothesis of a particular research. Secondly, this study design cannot be used to address the study question since it focuses on identifying the research sample before the disease strikes (Jaddoe et al., 2012). In our study, however, the focus is on managing the condition in children after they have already been affected by it. Thirdly, the fact that this type of study takes a long period of time, incidences of attrition are bound to be high and therefore, it takes time to come out with effective data to be used in the study process.
The various health data resources that can be used in this study include screening surveys, disease registries, general population morbidity surveys, data from insurance, and hospital data. From this list, the resources that can be used for carrying out this study include; disease registries, insurance data, and screening surveys. Screening surveys present a case of easy identification of children who may be having the condition thereby making it easy to address it (Friis & Sellers, 2013). A limitation of this data source, however, is the fact that since the nature of the sample may be non-representative; it will be challenging to generalize the outcomes of the study. The strengths of disease registries are based on the ease with which statistical data can be compiled for analytical proposes. A limitation of this data source, however, is that there are bound to be non-reporting biases which will compromise the confidentiality of the medical data presented. Insurance data present a case of its strength in the sense that this data can be used in determining the severity and the frequency of the disabling conditions (Friis & Sellers, 2013). A limitation of this type of resource, however, is the fact that it does not have information about the uninsured in the society thereby making it hard to obtain valuable information from this segment of the population.
References
Friis, R. H., & Sellers, T. (2013). Epidemiology for public health practice. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Håkansson, K., Thomsen, S. F., Konge, L., Mortensen, J., Backer, V., & von Buchwald, C. (2014). A comparative and descriptive study of asthma in chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps. American journal of rhinology & allergy, 28(5), 383-387.
Jaddoe, V. W., van Duijn, C. M., Franco, O. H., van der Heijden, A. J., van IIzendoorn, M. H., de Jongste, J. C., & Rivadeneira, F. (2012). The Generation R Study: design and cohort update 2012. European journal of epidemiology, 27(9), 739-756.
Mayo Clinic. (2016). Overview - Childhood asthma - Mayo Clinic. Retrieved from http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/childhood-asthma/home/ovc-20193095
