Prevalence of Exercise-Induced Asthma in Select Cohorts of College Athletes

Overview

This study is investigating how commonly exercise-induced asthma happens in athletes and the best way to diagnose exercise-induced asthma. Exercise-induced asthma describes narrowing of the airways in the lungs that occurs in certain people when they exercise. This can cause shortness of breath, cough, and fatigue during exercise and can impair athletic performance. Exercise-induced asthma can be difficult to diagnose. This is a research study, because the investigators are examining the best way to document a diagnosis of exercise-induced asthma. The investigators are also interested in examining why exercise-induced asthma may occur.

prospective, cohort study of the prevalence of asthma in select athletic teams at a large, collegiate athletic program as documented by self-report versus lung function testing. Athletes from men's and women's ice hockey, soccer, and lacrosse will be studied. Each athlete will indicate via self-report on questionnaires whether they have asthma, and then subsequently will be tested utilizing specialized lung function testing. These teams were chosen, because it will allow for gender-matching across teams and they had subjectively reported asthma prevalence rates based on prior pilot data. Inclusion Criteria: 1. Varsity athlete on athletic team of interest here at The Ohio State University 2. 18 years of age or older 3. No short-acting bronchodilator use for 6 hours prior to testing 4. No long-acting bronchodilator use for 36 hours prior to testing 5. No inhaled corticosteroids or leukotriene modifiers for 72 hours prior to testing 6. Non-smoker for 6 months or longer 7. Less than 10 pack year (number of packs per day (x) years of smoking=pack years) smoking history, as smoking causes chronic changes in the profile of inflammatory cells of lungs and also makes airways more likely to spasm. This is true even for non-smokers. Exclusion criteria: 1. pregnancy 2. recent upper respiratory tract infection (within 2 weeks of study enrollment) 3. Objective evidence of severe lung impairment on pulmonary testing performed at the beginning of the study. 4. Participation in another interventional research trial 5. Unable to provide consent 6. Asthma exacerbation within the last 4 weeks

Conditions