Poor asthma control in obese children may be overestimated because of enhanced perception of dyspnea.

Background: Although studies in adults have shown a non-TH2 obese asthma phenotype, whether a similar phenotype exists in children is unclear.

Objective: We hypothesized that asthmatic children with obesity, defined as a body mass index above the 95th percentile for age and sex, would have poorer asthma control as well as decreased quality of life, increased health care utilization, and decreased pulmonary function measures as a function of increased TH1 versus TH2 polarization.

Methods: This study involved a post hoc analysis of cross sectional data from 269 children 6 to 17 years of age enrolled in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Severe Asthma Research Program.

Residential proximity to a major roadway is associated with features of asthma control in children.

Background: While several studies suggest that traffic-related air pollutants are detrimental for respiratory health, few studies have examined relationships between residential proximity to a major roadway and asthma control in children. Furthermore, a major limitation of existing research is reliance on self-reported outcomes. We therefore determined the spatial relationship between the distance from a major roadway and clinical, physiologic and inflammatory features of asthma in a highly characterized sample of asthmatic children 6-17 years of age across a wide range of severities.

Epinephrine autoinjector availability among children with food allergy.

Epinephrine is the treatment of choice for anaphylaxis. Delay in administration of epinephrine is a known risk factor for food allergy reaction-related mortality; however, individuals with food allergy may not have epinephrine readily available. This study was designed to determine the percent of food-allergic children that have an epinephrine autoinjector readily available and factors associated with epinephrine autoinjector carriage rates.