title: Does forced air heating exacerbate asthma?
abstract: Asthma morbidity increases in the Canadian autumn coincident with the beginning of home heating. To test the hypothesis that forced air heating exacerbates asthma, 51 subjects were randomly assigned to one of two groups: the intervention (off1-on2) group was instructed to keep their home forced air heating off from September 9 to 17 and then to set the thermostat to 22 degrees C from 8 PM to 8 AM between September 18 and 25. The concurrent control (off1-off2) group was instructed to keep their forced air heating off during the entire study period. Forty-eight of the 51 subjects randomized recorded morning peak flows, asthma symptoms, and bronchodilator use during the study period. For the intervention group, results before compared with during home heating, respectively, were as follows: mean nocturnal awakenings 0.36 versus 0.36; any breathing difficulties an awakening 82% versus 73%; mean morning peak flows 406 lpm versus 409 lpm, a difference of 3.3% +/- 6.7% (SEM), p = 0.6. There was a 95% probability that the true change in peak flows with forced air was less than 2%. For the control group, the comparable results were as follows: mean nocturnal awakening 0.40 versus 0.47; breathing difficulties on awakening 40% versus 47%; mean morning peak flows 400 lpm versus 399 lpm (p = 0.9). The commencement of forced air heating did not exacerbate asthma in this clinical population and is therefore unlikely to be an important problem for most people suffering from asthma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Dales
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fyfe
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Schweitzer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001249:Asthma / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006361:Heating / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged