Parents and healthcare providers have a new tool to help predict the risk of asthma in toddlers. The Pediatric Asthma Risk Score (PARS), designed to forecast asthma development in early life, has been put to the test across various demographics with promising results published in NEJM Evidence.
PARS, a 14-point scoring system encompassing factors like self-declared race, parental asthma, eczema, wheezing, and polysensitization, was originally developed and validated in relatively similar populations. However, this study examined its performance in a diverse group of 5634 children from birth to age three.
The primary aim was to assess PARS's ability to predict asthma development in children aged 5 to 10 years across ten different cohorts, spanning various ethnicities, genders, cohort types, and birth decades. Additionally, researchers wanted to determine how well PARS stacked up against the binary Asthma Predictive Index (API).
Across the ten cohorts, PARS displayed an area under the receiver operating curve (AUC) of 0.76, demonstrating its effectiveness in predicting asthma risk. Impressively, PARS performed consistently well, regardless of ethnicity, gender, cohort type, or other variables.
One of the standout findings from the study was PARS's ability to identify asthma risk in children across a broad range of backgrounds and susceptibility. Its predictive power remained strong even when compared to the API, a previously established tool for assessing asthma risk in children. Notably, API failed to identify 31% of children at moderate risk for asthma, while PARS did not exhibit such limitations.
The study's outcomes provide an invaluable tool for parents and clinical trialists, offering them a robust method for predicting a child's likelihood of developing asthma. This information can be particularly useful in crafting primary prevention strategies for asthma, offering early interventions to at-risk children.
The Pediatric Asthma Risk Score (PARS) has demonstrated its versatility and effectiveness in predicting childhood asthma risk. This tool, designed to be applied across diverse populations, is poised to be a valuable resource for both parents and healthcare providers, aiding in early intervention and prevention efforts for childhood asthma.
Source:
Biagini, J. M., Martin, L. J., He, H., Bacharier, L. B., Gebretsadik, T., Hartert, T. V., Jackson, D. J., Rivera-Spoljaric, K., Schauberger, E. M.,Wegienka, G., Ownby, D. R., Martinez, F. D., Johnson, C. C., Wright, A. L., … Khurana Hershey, G. K. (2023). Performance of the Pediatric Asthma Risk Score across Diverse Populations. In NEJM Evidence (Vol. 2, Issue 10). Massachusetts Medical Society. https://doi.org/10.1056/evidoa2300026