AIRWEIGHS: Investigating Obesity as a Susceptibility Factor for Air Pollution in Childhood Asthma

Running, not enrolling · Not applicable · Has a placebo group

Conditions studied: Asthma

In brief

Background: Asthma and obesity are public health crises that have concurrently risen over the past decades, affecting millions of children in the United States and disproportionately affecting low-income minority children in urban areas. The same children at highest risk for asthma and obesity also have greater exposure to indoor and outdoor pollution. Emerging evidence suggests that obesity may confer increased susceptibility to health effects of air pollution. Methods: Aiming to provide causal-level evidence of these observational findings, we propose a home intervention study to 1) test whether targeted reductions of indoor Particulate Matter (PM) concentrations improve the respiratory health of overweight inner-city children with asthma more than that of lean inner-city children with asthma and 2) investigate mediators of susceptibility to indoor PM among overweight versus lean children with asthma. We will accomplish these aims using a 1:1 randomized controlled trial of 200 children with persistent asthma (half normal weight, half overweight) living in Baltimore City. Participants will be randomized to receive either two active air purifiers containing high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters or two sham air purifiers with their filters removed. Implications: If the aforementioned observational findings are confirmed, implications will be directly relevant to the over 170 million children around the world now estimated to be overweight or obese.

Key facts

Study ID
NCT02763917
Run by
Johns Hopkins University
People needed
198
Starts
2016-08-01
Expected to finish
2027-09-01
Last updated by the study team
2025-10-03

Who can join

Age: 8 and older, up to 17. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

You may not qualify if…

Where it is running

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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