Higher Covid-19 vaccination rates are associated with protection against children experiencing symptomatic asthma, according to the findings of a new JAMA Network Open study. The researchers reported that for every increase of 10 percentage points in the coverage of Covid-19 vaccination, the prevalence of pediatric asthma symptoms decreased by 0.36 percentage points.
“Asthma is one of the most common chronic illnesses among children in the United States, with about 4.7 million children experiencing symptoms each year,” lead author Matthew M. Davis, Executive Vice-President, Enterprise Physician-in-Chief and Chief Scientific Officer of Nemours Children’s Health, said in a press release. “Whether asthma is mild or severe, it affects children’s quality of life. So anything we can do to help kids avoid flare-ups is beneficial.”