The effect of duration of treatment with inhaled steroids on asthma control in children

BACKGROUND: Corticosteroids are the first line of treatment for asthma by inhibiting airway inflammation. Therefore, the present study was performed to evaluate the effect of duration of treatment with inhaled steroids on asthma control in children. METHODS: This retrospective study was performed on children under 12 years of age in 2021. Children with asthma referred to the specialized clinic of Qods Hospital, Qazvin City, Iran, were included in the study. 90 children were assigned to two groups of 45 subjects, one group with inhaled steroids treatment for one month, and the other group with inhaled steroids treatment for three months. One month after the end of treatment in both groups, patients' clinical and paraclinical symptoms were re-evaluated. SPSS software and an independent t-test were used to compare the groups. RESULTS: Body mass index (BMI) in the percentile was between 3 to 97 kg/m2 (76.3%). The duration of treatment was more than one month in 85.6% of children and up to one month in 14.4% of children. The mean recurrence time was 14 days in both groups. The effect of treatment duration on the return of clinical symptoms was the same in both groups. The duration of treatment was not effective in controlling asthma (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Recurrence of asthma symptoms was observed in both groups at two and three months. Therefore, the duration of inhaled steroid use did not affect the duration of symptom recurrence.