Forty-five asthmatic children were enrolled in a swimming program in Baltimore. After participating in a 2-month swimming session, the children showed significant improvement in all clinical variables including symptoms, hospitalizations, emergency room visits, and school absenteeism compared with their previous medical history or to those of age-matched controls. These health benefits continued to be observed even 12 months after the session had been completed. The implications of these findings and the potential usefulness of adding sports programs as adjunct therapy in the comprehensive care of asthma in children are discussed.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.