Study: Secondhand smoke exposure increases readmission of children with asthma to hospitals

A new study, published in the journal Pediatrics, raises the possibility that measuring tobacco exposure could be used in the clinical practice to target smoking cessation efforts and reduce the likelihood of future hospital admissions.

 

Researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and Penn State Milton S. Hershey Children’s Hospital measured cotinine in the blood and saliva of more than 600 children.  Cotinine is produced after that chemical nicotine enters the body.  Measuring cotinine in people’s blood is the most reliable way to determine exposure to nicotine for those exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS).

 

Measuring this exposure can be used to target interventions before discharge with caregivers, counseling, and contacting the primary care physician.  The study’s intent was to understand hospital readmission causes.  The scientific analysis of actual secondhand smoke demonstrated a readmission risk more than twice that of children who were not exposed.  

 

Certainly there could be a financial incentive for insurance companies to help caregivers to quit smoking, rather than pay the downstream costs of a future asthma readmission.  Help your patients to stop smoking in this New Year!  You can get paid for Smoking Cessation Counseling.  Call on our MD Spiro experts to learn more about how you can use CO breath testing in smoking cessation counseling in your practice or visit www.mdspiro.com. 

 

References:

http://www.cdc.gov/biomonitoring/Cotinine_FactSheet.html

https://mdspiro.com/breath-co 

https://mdspiro.com/for-your-practice