In the first randomised controlled trial investigating the use by children of a combination inhaler normally used by adults, an international team, including researchers from the University of Otago, found the combination inhaler reduced asthma attacks in children by almost half.
The results, published yesterday in The Lancet, showed using a single 2-in-1 anti-inflammatory reliever inhaler reduced children’s asthma attacks by an average of 45%, compared to the widely-used salbutamol inhaler.
University of Otago Prof Bob Hancox, who is medical director of the New Zealand Asthma and Respiratory Foundation, said the study was "very important ... for children with mild asthma".
"This research shows that this 2-in-1 inhaler is effective and safe for children as young as 5. This information will help to reduce the burden of asthma for many children, and both they and their families will breathe easier because of it," Prof Hancox said.
The CARE study (Children’s Anti-inflammatory Reliever) was designed and led by the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, in collaboration with Imperial College London, University of Otago Wellington, Starship Children’s Hospital and the University of Auckland.
It recruited 360 children throughout New Zealand who were randomly assigned to receive either the 2-in-1 budesonide-formoterol or salbutamol, which is usually prescribed for children, for on-demand symptom relief.
The trial lasted a year, and the budesonide-formoterol reliever resulted in a lower rate of asthma attacks than the salbutamol reliever.
This means that for every 100 children with mild asthma who were switched from salbutamol to a 2-in-1 budesonide-formoterol inhaler, there would be 18 fewer asthma attacks per year. Importantly, the study also confirmed the safety of the combined-inhaler approach, with no significant differences in children’s growth, lung function or asthma control between the two groups.
In New Zealand, one child in seven needs to take medicine for asthma.
— Allied Media
