Revision history

What the study found

Researchers assessed school asthma resources for children aged 5 to 13 in a larger trial cohort. Schools often knew about a child’s diagnosis, but reliever medication, holding chambers and care plans were less common. More preceding-year asthma exacerbations were associated with higher readiness; this baseline association cannot show whether readiness changed asthma risk.

More prior-year exacerbations were associated with higher school asthma readiness, although only a minority of children attended schools equipped to manage asthma symptoms.

Who and what was studied

The analysis included 202 children aged 5 to 13; 95% identified as Black, 98% as non-Hispanic, and 73% had an asthma emergency-department visit in the preceding year.

School readiness was examined in relation to the number of asthma exacerbations each child had experienced in the preceding year.

What remains uncertain

The cohort was overwhelmingly Black and non-Hispanic, and many had a recent asthma emergency-department visit, so the same pattern is not established for all children with asthma. This was a baseline observational analysis of preceding-year events, so the association cannot establish that school readiness caused or prevented asthma exacerbations.