June 11, 2013
Asthma toolkit planned for schools
University of Otago researchers hope that developing an asthma tool kit for schools will help address high levels of childhood asthma, particularly among Māori.
Research leader Bernadette Jones says children who start school with asthma will have lower educational outcomes, in part because of the amount of time they have to spend out of class.
She says while there has been a lot of research about conditions in homes that give rise to asthma, the health research council-funded study is a chance to see what happens in classrooms.
The respiratory condition affects about one in four children, and an even larger proportion of tamariki Māori.
"Our Māori children are twice as likely to be hospitalised as non-Māori children, particularly during their early years. That's why we're concentrating on the younger children because it has been proven that if you can get children into really good habits, then they can control their own asthma," she says.
Mrs Jones says the toolkit will also help teachers who often struggle with dealing with asthmatic children.
Copyright © 2013, UMA Broadcasting Ltd