Sport and the asthmatic child: a study of exercise-induced asthma and the resultant handicap

A group of 111 asthmatic children was studied using a self-administered questionnaire to investigate exercise-induced asthma and how it affected their participation in sport.Although selected to represent the severe end of the spectrum of general practice asthma, most children reported relatively mild asthma, with attacks less than once a week. Even so, 97 of the children (87%) experienced exerciseinduced bronchospasm, 74% fairly frequently. Just under one-half of those who suffered exercise-induced asthma did not treat it adequately and even more of them never used adequate prophylaxis.Forty-three children occasionally had to miss sport because of asthma, 24 had received advice to avoid certain sports and 28 had at times been unable to complete a game involving exertion. Given the importance of sport the findings suggest that asthma can be a real social handicap.