A study from the University of California’s San Diego School of Medicine shows that for children with asthma, attending a special camp can help improve asthma management skills.
I could have told them that — back in high school, I spent two summers working as a counselor at Camp Superkids, an American Lung Association camp in New Jersey. Each week-long session gave kids with varying levels of asthma (and often allergies, too) a chance to do the things that normal kids do at camp. We played sports, swam in the lake, made crafts, sang songs, and told stories.
Okay, back to the official study. The researchers evaluated more than seventeen hundred kids attending asthma camps around the United States. All of the campers had an official diagnosis of asthma from their physician.
The bad news from the survey is that more than a third of the children didn’t have their asthma under control. That means:
- They had one or more asthma-related emergency room visits in the last year.
- They were hospitalized at least once for asthma in the last year.
- An asthma flare-up required an unscheduled doctor’s visit.
- They missed two weeks of school or more in the last year.
The good news from the survey is that kids who were asthma camp veterans were better at controlling their asthma. They had fewer emergency room visits, fewer doctor’s visits, and fewer hospitalizations. Veteran campers were more likely to use medication to control their asthma.
The bottom line: asthma is controllable and treatable. Parents don’t have to just accept that a child with asthma will miss school or can’t participate in sports! An asthma camp can help children AND parents learn to manage the disease more effectively.
Some facts about asthma camps:
- There are around one hundred and twenty American Lung Association asthma camps around the country.
- Nearly ten thousand children attend these camps each year.
- The American Lung Association makes an effort to reach out to families in poorer neighborhoods.